


I'm Not in Love

by Firewhisperer13



Series: Guardians of the Galaxy Series [1]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Gen, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Marvel - Freeform, Some suggestive comments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-04
Updated: 2018-05-04
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:27:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 28,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24740767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Firewhisperer13/pseuds/Firewhisperer13
Summary: When Ravager Peter Quill sweeps Allyson Murray away from her everyday life, they find themselves in the quarry of relentless bounty hunters after they steal an orb coveted by Ronan. To evade Ronan, Quill and Murray are forced into an uneasy truce with four disparate misfits: gun-toting Rocket Raccoon, treelike-humanoid Groot, enigmatic Gamora, and vengeance-driven Drax the Destroyer. But when they discover the orb's true power and the cosmic threat it poses, they must rally their ragtag group to save the universe. All Rights Reserved, Marvel Entertainment Studios, 2014
Series: Guardians of the Galaxy Series [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1789015
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, this story has a different title on Quotev. That's because, when I called it "I'm Not in Love" on there, it kept labeling it as romance, which is not what this story is. Just wanted to clear that up

I sighed and pulled down the skirt of my uniform a bit, only to find it moved the whole dress with it, exposing more of my cleavage. I couldn't win here. Nervously, my brown eyes fluttered down to my digital watch, reading '4:02 p.m.' My usual customer was late by two minutes now, and that was freaking me out. Considering what his 'job' was, any number of horrible things could happen to him. I found myself chewing on my manicured nails in worry and quickly snapped my hand back down to my side.

"Hey, sexy!" I rolled my eyes at the call of the old perverts. "We're ready to order." Sighing and mustering up my cool, I headed over to the table, digital notepad ready.

"What can I get you gentlemen?" I hated that I was required to be nice to the customers, otherwise I would have used a much ruder nickname. 

"Well, depends on what services you'll perform," one of them stated, a disgusting smirk on his lips.

"None that you're thinking of, sir," I snapped quickly.

"Aw, come on, princess," one of them grabbed me by my waist and held me down onto his lap. "Have some fun."

"I will do no such thing!"

"Tsh. Terrans never wanna just live..." At that moment, the door opened, and I thanked some invisible force that I probably didn't believe in that my customer had come in. He approached the host's desk and gently rested his hands on the polished wood.

"Where's Allyson?" he asked sternly. 

"She should be around here somewhere..." The blue-skinned boy at the front scanned his eyes around until he found me struggling in the lap of the patron. "Found her..." The man's eyes followed the boy's gaze, and as soon as he took in what was going on, he stormed over in slightly flushed anger, lifting me off the man's lap in one swoop.

"Leave her alone," he growled, before turning to me. "Go compose yourself, take as long as you want. I'll wait." He smiled before taking a seat at his usual table, pretending to look at the menu, though he knew what he wanted. I marched into the cramped women's bathroom and contemplated splashing water on my face, but I didn't want to risk ruining my makeup, so I instead opted to take a few deep breaths, then re-emerged with my digital notepad and that stupid, fake smile on my face.

"What can I get you, Quill?" I asked, winking at him. He handed me the greasy, well-worn menu. 

"My usual, sugar." I raised an eyebrow and smirked. 

"Sugar? That's a new one." He shrugged. 

"I noticed it's the only nickname those disgusting, old men don't call you. Well, that and Ally." I shook my head and made my way to the back kitchen, reciting the order and waiting for the glass and plate to be placed in my porcelain fingers, which I quickly set down in front of the outlaw before pulling out the chair opposite him and sitting down.

"Anything worthy of reporting today?" I asked, feeling my mood brighten. Peter's daily visits at 4:00 were the only things I had to look forward to at this dead-end job.

"No, nothing interesting today. Have you eaten at all?" I shook my head and he cut the Terran favorite- a burger- in half, and handed the untouched side to me, along with a large handful of thinly-sliced fries, placing them on the other napkin. 

"Thanks. If nothing interesting happened today, why were you three minutes late?"

"Nothing interesting happened, but I was late because I picked up a little something for you and needed a box to put it in." Peter reached into one of his deep jacket pockets and pulled out a decently shaped brown box, sliding it across the table and into my hands. With a shaky grip, I separated the top from the bottom and pulled out a shiny, silver bracelet that looked like a snake, glimmering eyes made of my birthstone, an amethyst. I could feel tears welling in my eyes. No one had ever been this nice to me.

"Peter, this is... thank you." I slipped it onto the wrist of my dominant hand, my left, and slid the box back to the renegade.

"Nice to see your wrist scars are almost gone." He reached out and squeezed my arm. "And you're finally no longer just skin and bones."

"Yeah, well you're the one I thank for that." He stopped sipping his drink and raised an eyebrow at me. 

"Elaborate. I don't believe I've heard this story." I chuckled and took a few bites of the hamburger half before talking.

"Well, the first day you came in here, I was honestly terrified to serve you. I had heard stories of one Star Lord, who was known for seducing women into his bed for one night. So I was afraid you were going to try to use whatever skills you had to get me to fall into your lap, or force me into it. But instead- I think you saw you were upset for some reason- you asked me if I was okay, and you actually called me by my name, rather than some pervy title."

"I was worried about you. You were this fragile, little stick with cuts all over your limbs, and your eyes were bloodshot from crying so often."

"And I was almost always tipsy. But then, the whole night, you were so kind to me, and then you kept coming back." I sniffled and tucked some of my red-orange hair behind my ear. "You're the only one who ever cared. You've helped turn me into a normal person." He reached over and squeezed my arm again, this time in reassurance. 

"Allyson!" I whipped around to face the multi-armed chef behind the counter. "Your shift's over," he smiled. "You can go home now." I nodded and removed my apron and name tag, pinning it to the cloth before hanging it up and clocking out. Peter stood there waiting, and linked his arm in mine as we stepped out into the frigid atmosphere.

"I didn't realize it was going to get so cold," I chuckled. The man next to me quickly removed his jacket and placed it around my shoulders. "Thanks." We reached my living complex and I nodded my head to Quill before heading up to my small living space. As soon as the door was shut, I broke down into heavy, strong sobs, while simultaneously falling to the floor and grabbing the nearest sharp object- a broken piece of glass. Throwing Peter's jacket to the ground, I subconsciously dragged the glass along my skin repeatedly, allowing blood to openly flow onto the ground. But as quickly as I lost my mind, I gained it back and quickly shot up, locating the bandages in my bathroom and wrapping them around my injuries, before slowly pulling myself up. "You were doing so good..." I muttered. "You were doing so damn good." Sobbing, I trudged over to where I had cast aside Peter's jacket and, taking it into my arms, fell asleep right there on the bloody tile.

Even though my alarm was in another room, I was awoken by it blaring into my sensitive ears. My bleary eyes wandered down to the thing in my arms, and I quickly recognized it as Quill's jacket. No blood had seemingly gotten onto the jacket, and I figured I'd return it when he came back today. After making sure my wounds were fully covered, I dragged myself to work. being pulled through the same-old, same-old that came everyday. The only thing that changed was how much more dead inside I was. 

That is, until the door flew open an hour and a half early, and the familiar Ravager sprinted his way over to me.

"Peter? What the hell? You're early."

"Well, I... came back for my jacket, but I also need your... abilities," he whispered the last word as though he were a child. 

"My ability to depress everyone in the room?"

"No, the other one." I sighed and nodded. I never though I'd have to use these things, but desperate times called for desperate measures, and I just had to assume this was desperate. 

"Fine. Let's go." I raced over to the counter. "I need to take an extended leave. I know this is out of nowhere, but it's urgent." I quickly hung up the apron and name tag up in their usual place, then raced out alongside Quill to his ship.

"Sit down, we've gotta move." I sat in the chair next to his, strapping in as he lifted it off the ground. 

"God, this thing is so tacky," I muttered. "I'll be right back." I got up and climbed down the ladder to where the few bunks were, intending to lay down and nap. Instead, I was greeting by a perky, pink girl sitting there, only covered by sheets. "Ohh... kay." Slowly, I backed out of the room and sat back down in the chair. "I hate you."

"You're the best, too." I rolled my eyes and slumped down.


	2. Chapter 2

The planet was grey, cold, and _very_ dead. Heavy winds and rains beat down on the two of, feeling like a sign of the end times. I was soaked to the bone, shivering as I tried to keep myself from catching a cold. The dark ruins that stood ominously on the other side of a gap had to be the ones we were searching for. Beside me, Peter pulled out a white scanning device-likely from the people he worked for- and tapped it against his palm a few times before getting it to work. A flat, blue bean extended out and ran itself over the landscape around us before projecting a moving image of what had been before the planet had died. The system located the item we were looking for, and now it was my time to shine.

"All right, I need you to hold on." Peter nodded and grabbed tightly to my waist, the eyes of his mask the only things glowing in the darkness. "Okay, Allyson. You've got this." I moved one of my arms loose from Peter's grip and stretched it out across the gap, the crook of my elbow flopping like hot gum as I gripped onto the opposite ledge with my fingertips, which were still solid. Warily, I swung the two of us across and pulled our bodies up onto the ledge. As soon as we composed ourselves, Peter pulled the device back out, and we made our way through what once was a prosperous civilization as images of how things used to be ran free in front of us. 

The dryness of the cave was a relief from the unrelenting outside world. As soon as he was sure we were safe, my partner put the scanner back in his pocket and pressed the button on the side of his mask that made it fall away, revealing his face to be perfectly dry and untouched, though his hair was completely soaked. 

Sunlight shone down on us in chunks, beams that seemed to be some sort of hope for the rest of us. Gently, Peter placed a tiny set of headphones against his ears and pressed play on his Walkman, as it was apparently called, before smiling at me. He bopped and danced to whatever song was playing this time as we inched our way through the cave. However, as we got further in, his moves began to get larger and more rambunctious, and out of nowhere, Peter kicked his foot and splashed me with water, stopping me in my tracks. As soon as I cleared my vision, I stared in awe with my mouth agape, trying to hold back laughter as Peter kicked aside a few orloni, then grabbed one and used it as a microphone. After getting over my initial shock, I ran over to join Peter, where he promptly grabbed me by the hand and started spinning me around, causing me to give off a real, genuine laugh, unlike any I'd done in years. There was just something about being around Peter that turned me into a stupid, ditsy teenager again.

"Hold on, Allyson!"

"Wait, what?" I grabbed onto Peter's waist and whooped as he slid across a slick of what I hoped was oil, dragging me right along with him. "Gap." While Peter used the boosters on his shoes to get across, I stretched my rubbery arms out and pulled myself to the other side, finally finding some sort of use for this awful cure of a science experiment that was now a part of me. Ever so carefully, Peter tapped into the doors before us, and the chamber that supposedly held the thing we had come here for.

And there it was, suspended it purple.

Peter shook a ball in his hands to make it glow before setting it down so that we would have an unmoving light source.

"Let's do this quickly and get out of here. I'm freezing." He nodded and set down a powerful, magnetic device, and once he activated it, the orb within its confines began to tremble before being yanked out of the barrier. "Well, there we go." Just as Peter turned around with the orb in hand, three figures froze us in place with their guns cocked and held high.

"Drop it!" I recognized that man- Korath, was his name. Sometimes he would come by the diner, but all he would do was harass me relentlessly.

"Uh... hey." He spoke to the other two with him in a native tongue, instructing them to grab us.

"Drop it now!"

"Hey, cool man. No problem." Peter dropped the orb with a 'clank' as the henchmen stood on either side of us. "No problem at all." Korath picked up the orb, and started looking at the two of us a different way.

"How do you know about this?" 

"I don't even know what that is. I'm just a junker, man. I was just... just checking stuff out." Mentally, I groaned. Peter was the worst at lying, and this was the wrong time for him to try and start being good.

"You don't look like a junker. You're wearing Ravager garb!"

"This is just an outfit, man." One of the henchmen prodded me again with their gun, and while I kept my mouth shut, I should have known Peter wouldn't. "Ninja Turtle, you better stop poking her."

"What are your names?" Korath demanded.

"My name is Peter Quill, okay? And she's Allyson Murray. Dude, chill out."

"Move!" The henchmen hit us harder this time. 

"Why?"

"Ronan may have questions for you." Korath turned to leave, clearly expecting us to follow, but Peter's voice stopped him in his tracks.

"Hey, you know what? There's another name you might know me by." He turned to face the two of us. "Star Lord." Korath's brow crinkled. 

"Who?"

"Star Lord, man. Legendary outlaw. Guys?"

"I told you, no one calls you Star Lord," I muttered, my hands still raised in surrender. 

"Move!"

"Oh, forget this." Peter kicked the ball we had been using as a light source into the two henchmen, vaporizing them in an instant and allowing Peter to pull out his guns and shoot at Korath before he could react. "Ally, the orb!" I nodded and reached down, picking up the cool, metallic sphere in my hands. 

"Okay, let's-" Before I could finish my sentence, Korath shot up and fired at us, nearly hitting our bodies as Peter pulled me down. 

"Hold on!" He fired on the boosters on his boots, getting us out of the cave and sending us tumbling to the ground. "You good?"

"No time!" Korath jumped down to follow us, urging us to run back to the ship. Of course, Korath had thought ahead, and a few of his henchmen were surrounding the Milano. As we were still running, Peter pulled out another magnet and activated it, pulling the henchmen down to the ground. Using a rock to boost us up, Peter and I jumped, and I used my stretching limbs to swing us into the seats in the front. "Come on, come on, let's go!"

As quickly as he could, Peter started up the ship and pulled it off the ground, narrowly dodging an blast from below before getting us into the air. He laughed wildly, thinking we were free from harm, but as soon as his laughter stopped, a geyser shot up and knocked the two of us from our seats. I tried to ignore the pain in my arm as I was thrown against a wall, and then the stabbing in my ankle as I was tossed again. I managed to get a grip on the pilot's chair, and stretched my arm out just far enough to pull the lever, getting the Milano steady. As soon as the ship had leveled out, Peter and I collapsed against the wall, panting. At that moment, the pain rushed back to my arm, and I hissed, holding it where the pounding was most intense.

"Come here." He extended his arm out and I shimmied my way under his grasp, relaxing my arm against his shoulder as he lazily draped his arm around me. "You saved my ass back there."

"We saved each others' asses."

"Call it even?" I laughed and looked up at him, finding his eyes already glancing down at me.

"Sure." After a few seconds, both of us were laughing. I really did feel like a kid again when I was with Quill. There was just something magical about it.

"Peter?" We both jumped at that pink woman I had seen earlier emerged from below, looking as though she'd just taken a brutal beating. "What happened?"

"Hey, uh... uh... I..." 

"Bereet." I rolled my eyes. She was just another bimbo on Peter's hook. 

"Bereet!" Peter looked at me again, still gently cradling my arm. "Look, I'm gonna be totally honest with you, I forgot you were here." I rolled my eyes and managed to stood.

"That's why I hate you."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Go get dressed, sweetie. I'm sure Peter will get you home." She ducked back down below, while Peter got into the captain's chair and started to fly the ship away. I peeled the second skin of my jacket off and threw it aside before making my way to the front of the ship, reaching over Peter to turn on the news.

"Are you going to be okay?" 

"It's likely just a bruise. I'll be-"

"That's not what I mean." I looked over at him to see his eyes now resting on my bandages, beginning to disintegrate from the overexposure to water. 

"Relapse," I shrugged. "I feel a lot better when you're around."

"I know. That's why I want to keep you with me." I sighed. We'd had this fight a million times, so I decided to cut it short.

"I'm not becoming a Ravager, Peter. End of story." I heavily flopped into my chair and kicked my feet up on the dash, stealing occasional glances at the pilot as he flew us to wherever we were going next.


	3. Chapter 3

I reached around Peter to switch on the news, getting slightly bored with the looping soundtrack that was playing. I knew the tape that contained all of the songs was precious to him,- a tape of beloved songs that come from your dead mother is bound to be something precious to you- but I wanted to know what was going on in the galaxy. I would normally watch the news with the screen in the diner, but I clearly wasn't there today. Bereet sat down at the table, next to me. Just _exactly_ what I wanted

_"Scattered riots broke out across the Kree Empire today, protesting the recent peace treaty signed by the Kree Emperor and Xandar's Nova Prime."_

"Politicians," I scoffed. "Never get anything effective done."

"Hey, come on now." I shook my head and kicked my feet up again. 

"Sorry, just in a bitter mood today. Not that that's anything different," I laughed. But it wasn't a joyous laugh, rather one filled with spite. 

"Peter, you have a call."

"No, wait! Don't!" Before either of us could reach out to stop her, Bereet pressed the option to answer the call, bringing a blue, ugly face up onto the screen.

"Quill?" He was shouting, as usual. It was like he didn't know what volume control was.

"Hey, Yondu." I shook my head and moved my hair from one side of my head to the other, finding the best ways to distract myself while Peter and Yondu-

"I see you back there, Allyson. Don't think your hair helps you blend in." I awkwardly stood up and offered a half-hearted, nervous wave and smile.

"Hi, Yondu..."

"I'm here on Morag." He was addressing Peter now, so I took the free moment to seat my ass back down as quickly as possible. "Ain't no Orb, ain't no you."

_Of course we stole this thing for the Ravagers. Why am I not at all surprised?_

 _"_ Well, I was in the neighborhood. Thought I'd save you the hassle."

"Well, where are you at now, boy?"

"I feel really bad about this, but I'm not gonna tell you." As usual, he sounded not at all sorry. These calls and conversations with Yondu usually got pretty heated, but I was concerned that something was going to go too far this time. I moved myself closer to Bereet and hovered my finger around the 'end call' option, just in case. 

"I slaved putting this deal together-"

"'Slaved?' Making a few calls is slaved?"

"-and now you're gonna rip me off?"

"I mean, really?" He had a point. Despite how much Yondu seemed to love what he got from exchanges, but from what I had heard from Peter, he never did the dirty and hard work to get what was needed to exchange. 

"We do not do that to each other! We're Ravagers, we got a code."

"Yeah, and that code is 'steal from everybody,'" Peter snapped back quickly.

"When I picked you up on Terra-"

"'Picked me up,'" he scoffed.

"-these boys of mine wanted to eat you!"

"Yeah?" Clearly, Peter wasn't buying any of this bullshit, based on how his expression shifted. But there was something that was striking a chord inside of him, jarring him enough to make an impact.

"They ain't ever tasted any Terran before. I stopped 'em." He made it sound like Peter should be grateful for that. "You're alive because of me! I will find you. I will-" Peter shot his finger out in rage and ended the call, fuming and taking deep breaths to try and calm himself down. I sighed and stood up, making my way over to him and resting a hand between his shoulder blades.

"Sorry," I apologized quietly. "I should have ended that call sooner."

"It's not you fault. He just really grinds my gears."

"I know." My hand moved from his back to his right shoulder, patting it a couple of times. "One day you'll be able to be out on your own." I sighed and turned back around. "One day." 

Peter stood there, staring at the screen that had gone back to the news for a moment before turning back around and heading to the cockpit to get us to Xandar. The words of the anchor on the screen droned on as white noise in the background as I waited a moment before following.

"Hey, I know that whole series of events from Terra is a soft spot for you." He focused his eyes on the sky ahead, but I knew that he was listening to me. "It would be like if someone brought up the experimentation for me. We all have that one demon that stays with us, haunts us forever, and it's okay to have it." He still didn't respond, so I grunted and slumped down in my seat. "Fine. Listen to me if you want," I snapped.

"Okay, let's just get in and get out," I whispered as I looked around at the large crowds of people here. Crowds didn't make me nervous, or anything like that, but there were just some really suspicious characters roaming around, not to mention that I'm sure some of my regular customers were walking around somewhere.

After getting no response from Peter, I turned around to make sure he was actually following me, which I doubted. Sure enough, he was giving some sort of lengthy goodbye to Bereet, likely promising to call her again sometime, something I knew he would never follow up on. He had _serious_ issues with women, and I blame the death of his mother.

"Peter!" He snapped his gaze over to me and sent Bereet on her way so that we could get this over with. "You need to learn to maintain a relationship with someone."

"I'll settle down when I'm ready." I swung my arm out and tapped him on the stomach. 

"That'll be the day."

He led me into the shop that was waiting to accept whatever this orb was. Inside was a bizarre looking broker with quite feathery eyebrows, messing with something it looked like had just been given to him. He looked up at us with an unchanging expression.

"Mr. Quill," he acknowledged.

"Broker." I handed the shining orb to him before wandering down the narrow path we had followed in to look at the different things he had in his shop. "The orb. As commissioned." He looked up at Peter with a furrowed brow.

"Where's Yondu?"

"Wanted to be here, sends his love. And told me to tell you, that you got the best eyebrows in the business." The broker awkwardly picked up the orb and started to inspect every inch of its shimmering surface, making sure it was the real thing. "What is it?"

"It's my policy never to discuss my clients, or their needs," he answered vaguely. I huffed and blew some of the hair from my face. Everyone around here- and across the galaxy, to be honest, were so secretive about everything. It was like they lived on the idea that you can't trust anyone, not even those you know and love.

"Yeah, well, we almost died getting it for you." Peter waved his arm in my general direction, and I awkwardly waved. It was just a day of too much attention being drawn to me. 

"An occupational hazard, I'm sure, in your line of work."

"Uh, actually, I'm a waitress," I corrected from the front of the store. 

"Some machine-headed freak, working for a dude named Ronan." He snapped his head up to look at Peter, fear now overtaking his eyes.

"Ronan?" The broker moved around the desk and practically shoved the orb back into Peter's hands. "I'm sorry, Mr. Quill. I truly am. But I want no part in this transaction if Ronan is involved.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" I stepped forward and stood in front of the broker, getting close to his face. "Who's Ronan?"

"A Kree fanatic, outraged by the peace treaty, who will not rest until Xandarian culture- my culture- is wiped from existence!" He started to push the two of us out of his store.

"Whoa, come on," Peter protested. We both knew Yondu would come after him if he couldn't get this deal to go through.

"He's someone whose bad side I'd rather not be on."

"What? What about my bad side?" The broker opened the door to his shop and shoved us out of it.

"Farewell, Mr. Quill." He slammed the door in our faces, leaving us exposed and unsuccessful.

"Hey! We had a deal, bro!" He looked like he was about to try and kick down the door, when something worthy of a double take off to our right caught his attention. I turned to follow his gaze, spotting a green woman eating some sort of fruit and staring at him in amusement.

"What happened?" she asked in a slightly seductive tone. I raised an eyebrow as Peter laid out practically everything for him. 

"Uh, this guy just backed out of a deal on me. If there's one thing I hate, it's a man without integrity." He fully turned to face her, and I shook my head. "Peter Quill. People call me Star Lord." 

"No, they don't." I placed my head in my hand and shook it back and forth furiously.

"You have the bearing of a man of honor," she teased. Peter began to toss the orb up and down in his hand, and I perked my head up to carefully watch the woman. There was something off about her.

"Well, you know, I wouldn't say that. People say it about me, all the time," Peter rambled, "but it's not something I would ever say about myself." 

In a flash, the green woman snatched the orb from Peter's hand, kicked him in the stomach to stall him, and dashed out into the crowd. I grabbed onto Peter to drag him along beside me and chased after her as fast as I could. I didn't want to bring out my stretch abilities just yet, but if she got too far away, I had an advantage. Once he got ahold of himself, Peter pulled out an electricity rope and chucked it at her legs, binding them together and knocking her down. Peter caught up and tried to jump down on her, but she stuck her leg up to knock him down. I lept at her and tried to land a punch, but she almost seemed to see it coming and managed to block it, hitting me square in the stomach and knocking me down to her level. But I wasn't about to give up, so I reached out and tried to hit her again, but she pinned my arm above my head and swept her leg out, trying to kick me. That kick managed to boost her up to her knees, and she pinned one of my arms down with her foot and held a knife above my head.

"This wasn't the plan." Just before she could bring the weapon down on me, something jumped out and knocked her off of me. I watched with wide eyes, still from shock, as a large tree-looking creature trudged its way over to Peter with a large bag.

"Put him in the bag!" the thing on the green woman ordered. "Put him in the bag!" I looked up at the green woman to see that thesource of the voice was... a raccoon? 

"What the hell is going on here?" I muttered, leaning my head back down on the ground to collect myself before shooting up, ready to defend Peter. But instead of seeing the tree creature reaching out for Peter, it was extending roots toward the green woman. 

"No! Not her, him!" the raccoon snapped. "Learn genders, man!" The green woman clamped her teeth down on the raccoon's fingers. "Biting? That's not fair!"

I reached over to help Peter up, and the two of us sprinted into the crowd, trying our best to get lost in it so that they couldn't pinpoint us. We were crossing a bridge, getting closer to the Milano and an escape, when Peter suddenly hissed in pain and dropped the orb. It rolled down under a gap in the bridge's railing and clattered to the ground. Thinking quick, I swung down and stretched out my arms, catching Peter's fall as he jumped down. The green woman was already dashing toward the orb, and Peter managed to jump on her this time and hold her down. That is, until she got the usual upper hand and pinned him to the ground.

"Fool. You should have learned."

"I don't learn. One of my issues." In two swift movements, Peter snatched the orb from her hand and stuck a rocket pack on her, turning it on to launch her off of him and into the fountain nearby. Peter got up and I ran to his side, and just when it seemed like we were in the clear, Peter was suddenly scooped up into a bag and tossed over the tree creature's shoulder.

"Quit smiling, you idiot," the raccoon scolded. "You're supposed to be a professional."

"Hey, give him back!" I stretched my arms out and tried to yank the bag from the tree creature.

"Quit it!" the raccoon barked.

"Sorry, I kind of need him." I was trying my best to wrest the bag from the tree creature's grasp, until I looked past the three of us to see the green woman charging at us again. She pushed the raccoon down and out of the way and immediately cut the arms off of the tree creature, causing her to drop the bag. I watched carefully as she opened the bag, ready to reach out and snatch her, when blue electricity surged through her body and she fell to the ground. I smirked and used Peter's arm to stretch myself out and launch myself to him. Suddenly, blue electricity engulfed him as well, and he fell to the ground, screaming and writing. I whipped my head around to see the raccoon cackling with a gun in his hand, and quickly stretched my arm out to knock it away from him. Just as I got my fingers around it, an orange light surrounded them and they were lifted up, causing me to quickly snap my hand away as I looked up to see the Nova Corps ships.

_Shit..._

 _"Subject 89P13, drop your weapon_ ," A voice from inside the ship ordered. Two men yanked Peter up as another held my hands tight against my back. _"By the authority of the Nova Corps, you are under arrest."_

"Hey, if it isn't Star Prince," one of Peter's captor's teased.

"Star Lord," Peter sighed.

"Oh, sorry. Lord." The captor turned to his partner. "I picked this guy up a while back for petty theft. He's got a code name."

"Come on, man. It's a... it's an outlaw name."

"Just relax, pal. It's cool to have a code name. It's not that weird." I shook my head and grumbled as they pushed us along.

"Fascists."


	4. Chapter 4

One by one, each of us that had been captured were led to be scanned, so they could determine what they were supposed to do with us. I wasn't too worried, considering I'd never committed a crime before, but I didn't like the possibility of Peter being locked up while I was being left to roam around. That wouldn't end well, especially with the deep pits my mind could fall into. I stared the two men scanning me from behind the screen straight in the eyes, trying my best to look intimidating.

Unfortunately, a stick-skinny, 5'6 woman isn't exactly intimidating.

"Allyson Lorraine Murray," the man at the controls read out. I moved my arms out to my side in disbelief.

"Why'd you have to announce my middle name?" I groaned. "I don't like it."

"Part of the job." The smirk on his face said otherwise. "The result of illegal human experimentation to test the limits of the movement of molecules in the human body. Left her with severe mental affects from trauma."

"Dude, you're reading out my worst memories. Quit it."

"Well, she has no criminal record," the partner observed. "But she appears to be an under-the-radar accomplice of Quill's." I was outraged. How dare they make these assumptions?

"That's so not true! I just met him when he came into the diner one day. I've only worked with him this one time!"

"Take her with the others." I flicked my arm out and proudly stuck up my middle finger in their direction as I was led away and onto the ship that was taking all of us to whatever prison they deemed fit for a bunch of criminals, and one innocent.

"They're seriously locking you up, too, Allyson?" I looked up to see Peter with an angry look on his face.

"Just let it go. They're a bunch of dicks."

"I guess most of the Nova Corps want to uphold the laws," the raccoon ranted as we were being led through the prison- known as the Kyln-, "but these ones here, they're corrupt and cruel. But, hey, that's not my problem. I ain't gonna be here long. I've escaped twenty two prisons, this one's no different. You're lucky the broad showed up, because otherwise, me and Groot would be collecting that bounty right now, and you'd be getting drawn and quartered by Yondu and those Ravagers."

"I've had a lot of folks try to kill me over the years," Peter snapped back. "I ain't about to be brought down by a tree and a talking raccoon."

"Hold," the guard ordered us, causing us to pause momentarily.

"What's a raccoon?" I leaned to the side from behind Peter and stared at the animal in confusion.

"'What's a raccoon?' It's what you are, stupid!"

"Ain't no thing like me, except me." I rolled my eyes as the doors before us opened, and we resumed our procession.

"So, this orb has a real shiny blue suitcase, Ark of the Covenant, Maltese Falcon sort of vibe. What is it?" The green woman refused to look back at him.

"I am Groot," the tree creature announced.

"So what? What's the orb?"

"I have no words for an honorless thief," she sassed, her voice cold and unfeeling.

"Pretty high and mighty, coming from the lackey of a genocidal maniac." That seemed to strike something in her. She actually looked back at the raccoon and almost stopped walking. "Yeah, I know who you are. Anyone who's anyone knows who you are."

"Yeah, we know who you are." Despite Peter sounding confident and assured, I knew that he had no idea who she was. "Who is she?" he whispered to Groot.

"I am Groot," he responded.

"Yeah, you said that."

"I wasn't retrieving the orb for Ronan."

_Ronan? The broker brought him up before. Just who exactly_ was _this guy?_ Something told me it was more than just some fanatic against a peace treaty.

"I was betraying him. I had an agreement to sell it to a third party."

"I am Groot."

"Well, that was just as fascinating as the first eighty nine times you told that. What is wrong with Giving Tree here?"

"Well, he don't know talking good like me and you," the raccoon started to explain, with poor grammar. "So his vocabulistics is limited to 'I' and 'am' and 'Groot.' Exclusively in that order.”

“I tell you what, that’s gonna wear real thin, real fast,” Peter grunted.

We were led past a group of empty cells, being used by the people that were forced to work here to go through the things that had been on our persons when we were brought here. Peter continued to walk in time with the others, until his gaze shifted inside the contraband cell, finding one of the men slowly putting on the headphones to his Walkman. I could see Peter’s expression starting to shift, and I knew I had to try and shut him down.

“Hey,” he snapped at the man. “Put that away.”

“Peter,” I hissed, “I know it’s important to you, but please don’t cause a scene.”

“Hey!” He started to storm toward the guy in the cell. “Listen to me, you big, blue bastard!” I wanted to stretch out and stop him, but at the same time, I knew I would get in far more trouble if I tried to intervene. “Take those headphone off! That’s mine!”

“Those belong to impound,” the man shrugged.

My eyes widened as the door shut behind Peter, leaving him in the room with the men. They looked much larger and stronger than him, and if he tried to fight these guys, there was no way that he could win. Just to prove the point, he stepped forward with an electric prod and struck Peter square in the stomach with it, causing him to crumble to the ground.

“That tape in that player is mine! _Hooked On a Feeling,_ Blue Suede, 1973.” I shook my head at Peter’s seemingly infinite knowledge of music from back home. “That song belongs to me.

The man hit him again with the rod, and poked a few more times for good measure, leaving Peter wiggling and writhing on the floor in pain.

“People need to stop electrocuting him,” I muttered, shaking my head of orange hair. Once he had recovered, the man hoisted Peter up and threw him out, forcing him to keep moving.

Just before we were forced to go on, I managed to stretch one hand through the bars and snatch the Walkman, unnoticed.


	5. Chapter 5

_Unknown Location_

_1997_

I stared blankly at the wall as I awaited whatever torture came today. My shoulders, elbows, wrists, ankles… they all ached from the pulling and pushing, stretching and injecting. No human was _meant_ to endure this kind of abuse, but that was the whole point of all of this. Testing human-Terran- limitations seemed to be some sort of fascination when it came to the people up here, and they certainly did their jobs well, earning what they were paid. But they got more out of it than what they were testing for; they got to see the limitations of the human mind- our resistance, our resilience, our sanity.

I’d lost whatever bit of that last bit I had not too long ago. I think I’d actually watched it just fly out of my head and slam itself against a wall until it's brains were splattered all over it. But it's the sort of thing you don’t really miss, once you lose it. Over time, you forget what sanity even is, and it makes it easier to cope with the fact you suffered a great loss. Of course, I’d lost other things, too: my smile, inhibitions, the will to live, and even a bit of memory. Every now and then, I’d look in the mirror and forget what I looked like, or even that I had a reflection, and start screaming about strangers. And every time, people would come and calm me down.

The surface of the wall had dulled over the years, but there was still a vague reflection in it, enough to make out the features that stood out: bright orange hair, sickly pale skin, one bright blue eye and one rich brown, and of course, chicken legs. They were scraped, scabed, and scared, but who really cared about that? The people here weren’t ‘gifted’ me to are about and look after me. They were just here to do their jobs and go back to their families at the end of the day so that the night guards could come and watch over us, a.k.a make sure we don’t snap.

‘Gifted’ was such a loose and inaccurate term. Traded in for drug money by two people unwilling to be parents? That made a hell of a lot more sense. I’m sure at one point- probably when they still lived on Terra- they were capable of feeling human emotions, but apparently space changes people. Maybe they never would have been good parents, even if they’d never left Terra and still had me. I’d like to think I was the cause of the downfall, the result of stupidity and not thinking. I didn’t even know if those deadbeats were still alive, much less thinking of the daughter they threw away. Probably out too far to give half a damn.

“Allyson?”

I looked up at the sickly smile that greeted me in the doorway, acting as though she wasn’t a part of the torture of a youth and the robbing on her innocence.

“We just have to do this real quick, sweetheart. We’re really making some sort of breakthrough with you.” I scoffed as I reluctantly got off my ass.

“Great. So glad I could help in the name of shit science.”

The others were either just as miserable as I, or too delirious to really know what was going on. Although, supposedly we were all having different experiments done on us, so I was just as in the dark as the dreamers. Some talked of getting out, to themselves of course. We were never allowed to interact in any way, to prevent some sort of mass uprising and escape. Trouble was, they didn’t understand that if their experiments on us were successful, we could all get out no problem. That _did_ beg the question of whether or not the experiments were actually supposed to be successful or not, of course.

The faces in the room were familiar, and far too busy to concern themselves with saying anything to, or even acknowledging, me. They just stared at their scans and predictions and tapped their syringes, knowing that quitting time was just around the corner. I was always last, and I never quite knew why. Maybe they arrange it in reverse likelihood, or maybe they just liked screwing with me by keeping me up way later than I preferred.

I stepped into the usual endoskeleton-looking device, and the restraints tightened themselves around me, making sure I was given a little room to test if I could stretch or not. The buzzing stopped as things fell into place and people prepared themselves for the day’s usual round. Syringes were secured in the crucial places: shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles. Four large clamps were brought around and positioned to pull on me when the serum had taken effect. Once everything was ready, a doctor came around my front and smiled at me.

“Do you have any questions before we start, Allyson?” he asked with a false lilt.

“What’s this one gonna do to me?” I gestured my head to the syringes near my shoulders.

“It’s essentially going to cause the muscle in these spots to dissolve and be replaced by an industrial-strength, rubber-like substance. The bones will remain in tact, but you will be able to stretch your arms and legs from any of these points.” He moved his finger up and down the left row of syringes.

“So… you’re gonna put rubber in my body?” He nodded. “I’m gonna be some sort of walking extra-strength condom?” A few of the people around me made disgusted faces. “Oh, get over it.”

“Well, if that’s all, we’ll get started.”

The syringes moved closer, and an unbearable pain ensnared me as they began injecting their substance into me. I could feel the substance slither through the designated areas, unlatch its jaw and swallow the muscle whole. Its fangs tore into me, forcing screams from my mouth, as the trauma dripping from its mouth traveled up into my brain, infecting me yet again. Its cold scales replaced the potential for the buildup of strength, of definition.

Something about this one was different.

I could barely catch my breath as the syringes removed themselves from me, tears shimmering down my cheeks and slipping down into my collar bones and chest. Everything in my brain but the part that registered pain felt dead, infected and intoxicted beyond function. This… This was the end of the Allyson that had once resided in this body. She was dead and gone, likely swallowed up in the process of muscle being replaced.

“Okay, Allyson, we’re going to try stretching you now,” one of the women informed me in a distorted voice. I couldn’t even bring myself to nod, only able to let out a pathetic whine as more tears slipped from my eyes.

The clamps bit down on my hands and feet, securing a firm grip so that I couldn’t slip away. Almost gently, they began to tug on me and stretch out my limbs. I almost expected them to stop at the normal human limit, but as the clamps continued to move back, my limbs went with them. Eyes around the room went wide and lit up as they stared at their success, watching it go beyond expectations right in front of them.

“This… is phenomenal.” One of them pushed buttons to bring my limbs back in. “And look! They set back just the way they’re supposed to!” The restraints on me released, and two of them helped me down. “Try walking around, Allyson. See if they still work like normal limbs.”

_You dumbasses just let me out of my restraints._

I took a few wary steps, both playing a part and legitimately concerned my legs would just fold up underneath my body weight. I managed to make my way into the center of the circle of onlookers, then with a look around at them, I suddenly collapsed to the ground.

“What’s wrong?” They all got closer and crouched around me, staring at my supposedly spasming body.

_Idiots_.

I shot my arm out and punched one of them against the wall, then swung myself in a circle to do the same to all the others. Once they were out of my way, I jumped up and raced out of the doors, looking left and right down the hallway to make sure no one was coming my way. If I was sneaky enough about this, maybe I could get out without anyone knowing what was going on.

Quietly, I snuck my way down the hallway, going toward what I knew to be an exit. It didn’t pass any cells, so no one else here could cause an uproar, and for some inexplicable reason, there weren’t cameras in this place. Sure, someone could watch the tapes of today’s experiments, but I would be long gone by then.

The endless hall finally came to a door, and with just the push of the button, I was out in the cold rain.

_Rain…_ I’d forgotten what that was, how it felt, how it soaked you right through to the bone. I wanted to smile, to laugh, but I couldn’t find the place in me to do it. All I could do was trudge my way through mud in hopes of finding someone who could help me.

_Tomorrow’s another damn day…._


	6. Chapter 6

I did my best to hide the Walkman in my yellow uniform as someone slapped a blanket against my stomach. They did it was such force that the wind was almost knocked out of me, and I had to cough in order to catch my breath. Peter stole a quick glance back at me, and I just shrugged my shoulders as I was forced to march on next to the green woman named Gamora. Others in matching uniforms moved around us, minding their own business just enough to get away with the curious and judgemental glances our way. I looked around at it all in fear. People dangled from handrails, sat at tables, and engaged in small fights that seemed to have no significance. I backed my way closer to Peter as people from up above started throwing things and shouting in our direction.  
“You first! You first!”  
“Murderer!”  
“Coming for you first, Gamora! You’re dead!”  
“You’re scum! You’re scum!”  
I looked back at Gamora to check on how she was. Her typically stoic and emotionless expression was starting to falter ever so slightly, their words, gestures, and actions starting to get to her. I could feel my heart trying to reach out for her, seeing a reflection of myself in those deadened eyes.  
“I told you,” the raccoon- Rocket was his name- shrugged, “she’s got a rep. A lot of prisoners here have lost their families to Ronan and his goons. She’ll last a day, tops.”  
I’d fallen a bit behind everyone, staring at the grotesqueness of it all, so I had to quicken my pace in order to catch up with Gamora, who I was fortunate enough to be sharing a cell with.   
“The guards will protect her, right?” I shook my head. Peter had a good heart, but he was naïve.   
“They’re here to stop us from getting out. They don’t care what we do to each other on the inside.”  
“Whatever nightmares the future holds, are dreams compared to what’s behind me.”   
I nearly jumped out of my skin as a big, blue prisoner approached us and loomed over Peter.  
“Check out the new meat.” I didn’t like the tone of his voice. One of his hands started to caress Peter’s cheek, and my eyes widened. My feet were cemented in place, but I wanted to do something. I trembled in fear and rage, but I couldn’t bring myself to move. “I’m gonna slather you up in Gunavian jelly, and go to to-”  
Groot suddenly stretched out his arm and stuck two wooden fingers straight up his nostrils and lifted the bulky prisoner off the ground as though he weighed nothing. I cringed in disgust and looked away, trying my best to drown out the sounds.  
“Let’s make something clear. This one here is our booty.” I shook my head. “You wanna get to him, you go through us. Or, more accurately, we go through you.” I flinched as the prisoner’s bones cracked and Groot threw him to the ground. He and Rocket stepped over the body and made their way to their cell without a second thought, and after a moment of hesitation, Peter followed.  
“I’m with them.”  
I looked around for my cellmate, but couldn’t find her in my immediate area. I could feel panic rising, and as a result, started to whip my head around violently. I managed to spot her in the middle of a group of shouting prisoners, and while I wanted to help, I once again couldn’t bring myself to move.  
“I hate you.”  
“No cell’s gonna protect you for long.” I noticed she was stepping into our cell, and quickly dashed after her, slamming the door shut behind us as the other prisoners pressed themselves up against it.  
She sat down on one of the beds with a strong expression, and I had to wonder just how she did it. This mob wasn’t even yelling at me, and I was still on the brink of tears. If I were in her shoes, I would have been openly sobbing by this point. But there she sat, staring intensely at the wall as I propped myself up against it. Neither of us dared to speak at first, acknowledging we didn’t really know each other at all.  
“Why didn’t you do anything?”  
I turned around and looked at her, confused.  
“Huh?”  
“I saw the expression on your face. You wanted to help him before Groot intervened, but you didn’t.” I could feel the sting in my ego, but as I spoke, my voice wavered and choked from tears.  
“I was frozen.”  
“You still could have said something.”  
“I was scared, okay?” I had a sudden surge of bravery, and whipped around to look her straight in the eyes. “Not all of us are hardened creatures of stone. I have feelings, and for as much as I owe Peter and wanted to help him, my fear stopped me.”   
I cut myself off and took a deep breath just as I felt the hysteria mounting. The silence was now awkward, Gamora having to take the time to process all of this. I’d given away a surprising amount of information in a couple of crazy sentences, and she could pull almost anything from them.  
“You and Quill seem to have known each other for a long time,” she finally observed. “Did you know each other on Terra?”  
I remained silent for a few moments, contemplating how to approach this, if I even was going to. This was a touchy subject for me, addressing a point in my life so low that I never thought I would get out. I’d never talked about it, not even with Peter. He didn’t know the full story, and I had no intention of telling him, so why anyone else?  
Someone else… because I’d never gotten it out of my system.  
With a sigh, I made my way over to my bed and sat down, but didn’t meet her eyes.  
“I’ve never been to Terra, actually. My parents got out of there long before I was around, and never went back. But they didn’t have me for very long. When I was a teenager… they gave me to some underground organization, allowing them to experiment on me for money, and I never saw them again. Those people, they didn’t give up, and now, I can stretch myself because they put a rubber substance in me.  
“I managed to escape once they were successful- they weren’t smart enough to realize I’d try something once I had the chance to. Got away, found out I was on some planet whose name I can never remember to this day, and I lived on the streets for a while before managing to secure a job at a diner. It wasn’t much, but it payed the lowest of low rent and the smallest amount of food on my table. And the job came with its own low points, like lots of scummy patrons. It was the same thing day-in and day-out, and I… sunk into a bit of a hole. I had no hope anyone would appreciate me and treat me like a person, rather than their sex symbol or experiment.   
“Then, one day, this tall, brooding kinda guy came in and sat at a table in my section. I dreaded serving him, because he looked like just another guy that was gonna hit on me nonstop. But, when I got to his table and he looked up, he asked me if I was okay, and every time I came back to the table, he was so nice to me. And he came back the next day, and the day after that… and every day for two years. I learned about him, he learned about me, and we became friends. And he started to help me get better. Peter saved me, and I owe him and unplayable debt for that.”  
A new kind of silence fell between us, now bonding instead of dividing. She almost had something resembling a smile on her face, once again processing the roller coaster I’d just given her. I couldn’t tell if she thought I was weak or not, but there seemed to be some sort of respect behind her monotone face.  
Who knows? Maybe if we didn’t die here, we could be friends.


	7. Chapter 7

I was jarred from my sleep by voices in our cell. My eyes flew open to see a couple of other prisoners surrounding a struggling Gamora. One of them had a knife pressed against her neck, and upon that sight, I tensed up.

"Take her down to the showers," the one seeming to be the leader ordered. "It'll be easier to clean up the blood down there."

"No." As soon as they turned to look at me, I regretted opening my mouth. Their stares were made of malice and cruel intentions, and before I could react, one of them roughly grabbed me and jerked me up out of the bed.

"Can't have witnesses," he taunted, pressing his face closer and closer to mine.

"Let me go," I begged, thrashing slightly to try and get away from his grip. They yanked on Gamora and I started to lead us down into the shower area. We passed by a place where a bunch of prisoners were sleeping, and I stretched out my arm to grab onto a grate and try to yank myself out of the prisoner's grip. But they were _far_ stronger than me, so all that happened was they yanked me away from the wall and kept dragging me along. 

Once down in the showers, the prisoners pushed us against the wall, and three of them pointed their knives straight at the point underneath Gamora's chin.

"Gamora, consider this a death sentence for your crimes against the galaxy." I struggled again, trying my best to get to a point where I could reach out and take at least one of the daggers. At least that would give me somewhat of a fighting chance, compared to my noodle arms and legs I had at the moment. 

"You dare?"

We all turned around to see a bulky, grey and red man staring at us with disturbingly blue eyes. He was a hulking creature with an intimidating glare, and I could feel myself shrinking under it as I looked at him. The leader of the group almost immediately backed off, looking at the guy like he was afraid the guy would kill him where he stood.

"You know who I am, yes?"

"You're Drax," the leader answered. "The Destroyer." As he stepped closer, I saw two figures move in behind him. My eyes flickered to the movement, and widened at the sight of Peter and Rocket, looming in the doorway and watching things unfold. 

"And you know why they call me this."

"You slayed dozens of Ronan's minions." The guy- Drax- was now looming over the leader of the prisoner group, causing him to shrink down. But his eyes were staring at someone else: Gamora.

"Ronan murdered my wife, Ovette, and my daughter, Camaria. He slaughtered them where they stood and he laughed!" I jumped as he shouted the last few words. "Her life is not yours to take. He killed my family. I shall kill one of his in return."

"Of course, Drax. Here, I..." He handed over his dagger and practically bowed down to Drax. But that left the others exposed, and Gamora took the chance to grab the men and knock them out. She yanked the daggers from their hands and held one close to Drax's throat, while the other was near the leader's. Since I wasn't being held down anymore, I went with my instincts and ducked to hide behind Gamora, holding each of her shoulders with gentle fingertips.

"I'm no family to Ronan or Thanos." Neither of them responded to the statement, and sensing that the hostility had died down slightly, she backed the two of us up while still holding the knives out. When I was almost up against a pillar, she finally dropped the daggers and said something. "I'm your only hope at stopping him."

I quickly jumped out of the way as Drax cried out and grabbed tightly onto Gamora's throat and shoved her up against the pillar.

"Ah!"

"Woman, your words mean nothing to me!" he shouted, holding the dagger closer to her throat than the other prisoners had.

"Hey!" I whipped my head around to Peter creeping closer to our motley crew with cautious eyes. "Hey, hey, hey! Hey!"

"Oh, crap..." Rocket muttered.

"You know, if killing Ronan is truly your sole purpose, I don't think this is the best way to go about it."

"Are you not the man this wench attempted to kill?" I raised my eyebrow at Peter in a way that said 'you know he's right.' He rolled his eyes at my expression and tried to turn back to getting Drax to drop Gamora. 

"Well, I mean, she's hardly the first woman to try and do that to me." Peter chuckled awkwardly before slightly lifting up his shirt to reveal a scar he had on his ribcage. "Look, this is from a smoking-hot Rajak girl. Stabbed me with a fork." I shook my head, remembering when he came into he diner with that wound, and I had to help him treat it. "Didn't like me skipping out on her at sunrise." He pulled down the collar of his uniform to show off another scar on his collarbone. "I got, right here, a Kree girl tried to rip out my thorax. She caught me with this skinny little A'askavariian who worked in Nova Records. I was trying to get information." I crinkled my brow at him. I had never heard the ending of that story, more specifically the other woman he'd been with. "You ever seen an A'askavariian? They have tentacles, and needles for teeth. If you think I'm seriously interested in that, then... You don't care. But here's the point. She betrayed Ronan. He's coming back for her. And when he does, that's when you..." Peter dragged his finger across his throat.

"Why would I put my finger on his throat?" I shifted my judgmental gaze to Drax. Did he not know what that meant?

"What?" Peter stared at him for a moment before catching on. "Oh, no, it's a symbol. This is a symbol for you slicing his throat."

"I would not slice his throat. I would cut his head clean off."

"It's just a general expression for you killing somebody." He turned to the leader of the group of prisoners and did the same motion. "You've heard of this. You've seen this, right? You know what that is."

"Yeah. Yeah. Everyone knows."

"No, no. What I'm saying is, you want to keep her alive. Don't do his work for him." Drax moved his gaze back to Gamora and stared at her for an uncomfortable amount of time before finally letting her go. He stared down at the dagger, and then marched away.

"I like your knife. I'm keeping it."

"That was my favorite knife." The situation having dispelled, Peter approached me and looked me over.

"Are you okay? Did they do anything to you?" I shook my head.

"I'm fine. All of this is just really jarring. I feel like I'm back... in that place. Like I'm waiting for someone to come and get me and stretch me out again." He pulled me into a hug, and I hesitated a moment before wrapping my arms around him. I sighed and leaned my head against his chest, but the moment was short-lived once Gamora stormed out. Without missing a beat, Peter and I followed after her, finally catching up when we were close to our cell.

"Listen! I could care less whether you live or whether you die," Peter clarified.

"Then why stop the big guy?"

"Simple. You know where to sell my Orb."

"How are we gonna sell it when we and it are still here?" Peter looked down with a smirk, and I followed his gaze down to see Rocket.

"My friend Rocket, here, has escaped twenty two prisons."

"Oh, we're getting out. And then we're heading straight to Yondu to retrieve your bounty."

"How much was your buyer willing to pay you for my Orb?" She hesitated for a moment before telling us.

"Four billion units."

"What? Holy shit."

"That orb is my opportunity to get away from Thanos and Ronan. If you free us... I'll lead you to the buyer directly and I'll split the profit between the four of us."

"I am Groot." We turned to see Groot pressing himself against the grate that was keeping him in.

"Four of us. Asleep for the danger, awake for the money, as per frickin' usual," Rocket chastised. I sighed and patted my hand against one of my crossed arms a few times.

"I should get some sleep. It's been a long day." I started to walk away.

"Do you want to stay with me?" I stopped and genuinely considered it for a moment before turning and putting on my best brave face. 

"I'll be fine. Thanks, though, Peter."

I trudged my way back to Gamora and my cell and laid down, turning to face the wall to cry silent, fearful tears. I didn't belong here, and yet, here I was. Stuck, yet again.


	8. Chapter 8

The next day, Rocket, Groot, Gamora, Peter, and I were listening to Rocket's plan to break out as we got our food. He was the expert, after all. I was trying my best to listen, but my mind kept flitting to other things, constantly distracted.

"If we're gonna get out of here, we're gonna need to get into that watchtower." I looked back at the large tower in the middle of the room. And to do that, I'm gonna need a few things." I followed the line of people over to a table and sat down beside Peter. The unappetizing mush caused my stomach to churn and my appetite to abandon me. "The guards wear security bands to control their ins and outs. I need one."

"Leave it to me," Gamora volunteered.

"That dude, there. I need his prosthetic leg."

"His leg?" Peter questioned.

"Yeah. God knows I don't need the rest of him. Look at him, he's useless."

"All right."

"And finally, on the wall back there is a black panel. Blinky yellow light. Do you see it?" I looked over to see the flashing yellow.

"Yeah."

"There's a quarnyx battery behind it. Purplish box, green wires. To get into that watchtower, I definitely need it."

"How are we supposed to do that?" I sighed. I knew I could stretch up to get it, but not without being seen.

"Well, supposably, these bald-bodies find you attractive. So, maybe you can work out some sort of trade." I reeled back, appalled at his suggestion.

"You must be joking." Peter's voice was rigid.

"No, I really heard they find her attractive."

"Look, it's twenty feet up in the air, and it's in the middle of the most heavily-guarded part of the prison. I can stretch myself no problem, but it's impossible to get up there without being seen."

"I got one plan, and that plan requires a frickin' quarnyx battery, so figure it out!"

"Don't yell at me!" Everyone seemed slightly shocked at my outburst.

"Can I get back to it?" Everyone remained silent. "Thanks. Now, this is important. Once the battery is removed, everything is gonna slam into emergency mode. Once we have it, we gotta move quickly, so you definitely need to get that last."

Suddenly the lights went out and a loud alarm started to blare as red emergency lights flashed. We whipped around to see Groot standing by the watchtower, holding the battery in his hand with a proud smile.

"Or we could just get it first and improvise." Rocket shook his head at his friend's actions.

"I'll get the armband."

"Leg." Peter and Gamora rushed off to get the things they had promised, while I remained with Rocket to help him and Groot. Rocket groaned and ran his hands up his face as guard robots zoomed in and surrounded Groot, ready to shoot and strike. He stared at them with an angry expression.

_"Prisoner, drop the device immediately and return to your cell, or we will open fire,"_ someone from the watchtower warned Groot. He refused to obey, and I tensed myself to get rid of the robots if they tried to shoot at Groot.

"I... am... _Groot_!" 

The guard robots started to shoot at him, causing him to sweep out an arm and sending one of the bots flying, then crashing to the ground. Taking that as I cue, I stretched my arm out and wrapped it around one of the bots, pulling it closer to me before slamming it down on the ground. I flinched slightly as it exploded, but couldn't take the time to let my fear cause me to freeze. We had to get out of here, and a part of that was keeping that battery- and Groot- in our possession. The prisoners in the room hit the deck and covered their heads, shouting and screaming in alarm. Groot and I punched the bots and threw them, allowing Rocket and I to run toward the large tree.

_"All prisoners return to your sleeping areas."_

"You idiot!" Rocket shouted. "How am I supposed to fight these things without my stuff?" Groot grew out the little twigs on his arm to form a defensive shield and held it up to defend the three of us the best he could as a couple more bots shot at him. I tried to find an opening to strike so that I wouldn't get shot, but they seemed to be in some sort of rapid fire mode.

"The animal is in control!" I looked over to see a bunch of armed guards aiming at us. "Fire on my command."

"Shit."

Before they could do anything, Drax, from last night, ran over and flipped the guards over, knocking the wind out of them as they fell on their backs. He then stole the gun from one of their limp hands and looked in our direction.

"Creepy little beast!" He tossed the gun in Rocket's direction, and he caught and cocked it.

"Oh, yeah."

Yelling, Rocket shot at the bots while Groot turned around to allow him to hit all of them. Taking the moment of distraction, I knocked a couple of the bots down and beat the one that didn't break until it was useless. The chaos around us was loud, but I could feel in spurring my adrenaline, and something resembling a laugh escaped from my throat as the remaining bots surrounding us flew off to deal with other prisoners.

"Rocket!"

Gamora tossed him the security bracelet from the balcony she was on.

"Move to the watchtower!" Groot lumbered his way over and started to grow his limbs so that we could climb them. "Stretchy girl, get on!"

"Have you really not learned my name?" I groaned, but I complied. I wrapped my arms around one of Groot's, which raised Rocket and I up to the walkway, where Gamora was waiting for us. She helped Rocket wiggle under the railing, while I vaulted myself over and landed down on the metal. I looked down as Peter started to climb up, balancing the leg under his chin so that he could grip the hand-holds. But just as he got about halfway up the leg, one of those security bots flew up right next to his face. I prepared myself to stretch down, when Drax suddenly jumped on it and ripped it in half as though it were nothing. "Wow."

"You!" Peter stopped climbing again and looked down at Drax. "Man who has lain with an A'askavariian." I laughed, somewhat glad that was what Peter was known as to Drax. That's what he gets for thinking he should share his conquests with everyone.

"It was one time, man," he grumbled as he resumed climbing. Drax started to climb up after him, and I glanced at Gamora before shrugging and letting the two of them climb up. I took Peter's hand and helped hoist him up over the railing, smiling at him for a moment before Gamora led the six of us to the door. 

"We have to be prepared to put up a fight." I narrowed my gaze at her.

"What do you think we were doing before? Dancing?" She shook her head and Rocket used the armband to unlock the door. The guard at the console slowly turned around to look at us, and with fear in his eyes, he raised his hands in surrender. Gamora confidently stepped into the room and shoved the guard aside before Groot wrapped his branch-arms around him and threw him out. With all of us in the room, we shut the doors and waited for Rocket to make his next move.

"Spare me your foul gaze, woman," Drax ordered Gamora as she glared at him. 

"Why is this one here?"

"We promised him he could stay by your side until he kills your boss. I always keep my promises."

"It's true," I added, nodding at Peter. "When they're to muscle-bound whack-jobs who will kill you if you don't." He rolled his eyes at me, then set the metal leg down on the console in front of Rocket.

"Here you go."

"Oh, I was just kidding about the leg." We all looked at each other in frustration. "I just need these two things."

"What?"

"No, I thought it'd be funny. Was it funny?" He started to laugh psychotically. "Oh, wait, what did he look like hopping around?"

"I had to transfer him thirty thousand units!" Rocket went back to typing things into the console as more security bots hovered outside the windows.

"How are we going to leave?" I flinched as one of them started shooting at the window to our right.

"Well, he's got a plan. Right? Or is that another thing you made up?"

"I have a plan! I have a plan!"

"Cease your yammering and relieve us of this irksome confinement."

"Yeah, I'll have to agree with the walking thesaurus on that one."

"Do not ever call me a thesaurus." I looked back at him, confused. This was the second time now he didn't understand a metaphor of some sort.

"It's just a metaphor, dude."

"His people are completely literal," Rocket informed us as he slid some gagues. "Everything goes completely over his head."

"Nothing goes over my head. My reflexes are too fast. I would catch it."

"I'm gonna die surrounded by the biggest idiots in the galaxy," Gamora muttered.

"Thank you." My voice sounded sweet at first, but had a bitter undertone. 

We looked down to see a bunch of guards with heavy firearms surrounding the tower.

"Those are some big guns." One of the guards suddenly fired, cracking the glass right in front of us and causing us all to jump. I pressed myself against Peter as I started to shake.

I might not be able to escape this one.

"Rodent, we are ready for your plan."

"Hold on." He ran to the other end of the console and started activating some things.

We flinched and Peter held up an arm to guard the two of us as the window to our right was cracked.

"I recognize this animal. We'd roast them over a flame pit as children. Their flesh was quite delicious."

"Not helping!" The window to our left was cracked, and I was quickly starting to lose hope. I watched as the cracks started to spread on the windows in alarm. I could hear the lead guard down there counting down, but just as he got to one, Rocket connected the final wire to the battery.

Everyone on the ground below us looked around, confused, before they all started to float, separated from their weapons. I smiled as I realized what he had done.

"He turned off the artificial gravity, everywhere but in here." Rocket pushed up a lever, and the top of the watchtower started to whir to life before detaching itself from the base. He then changed the security bots programming and ordered them to attach themselves to the bottom of the piece of the watchtower and fly us down, sharply and suddenly. Everyone lurched forward and grabbed onto something as we dipped down at a high speed.

"I told you I had a plan." A guard suddenly slammed against our front window, and I grimaced. 

"Oh, get it off! Get it off!" 

The body fell away just as we crashed through a set of double doors, bouncing us around until we were safe behind closed doors.

"That was a pretty good plan," Peter complimented once we all caught our breath.

"Huh?" Shrugging and moving on, Peter kicked out one of the cracked windows and helped me down onto the ground to get our stuff and get out of here. We raced over to the window overlooking the docked ships until we found the one we were looking for.

"Yeah! There it is. Get my ship. It's the Milano, the orange and blue one over in the corner." He led me over to the stacks of prisoners' normal clothes and flipped through until he found mine, yanking it out and not looking as I climbed back into that stupid waitress uniform.

"They crumpled my pants into a ball," Rocket complained. "That's rude! They folded yours!" I subtly slipped the Walkman from my prison uniform, and into the pocket of my waitress one.

All I'd ever worn was a uniform...

Peter found his box and opened it, starting to rifle through as I followed Gamora.

"The Orb's in there. Let's go."

"Wait, wait, wait."

"What?"

"That bastard didn't put it back." Peter violently yanked up the pile of his clothes from the bin.

"Put what back?" He handed me the bag with the Orb in it.

"Get them to the ship. I will be right back."

"How are you gonna possibly-"

"Just keep the Milano close by." I watched him run away before sighing and running to gather the others. "Come on, we have to go."

"Where'd Quill go?" Rocket almost seemed to be protesting.

"He's off being an idiot. I have no idea what he's-" I rested my hands on my hips, and felt something hard and plastic against my hand. It suddenly hit me what he had gone back for. "Ohh... shoot..."

"What?" I met Gamora's steely gaze and tried to brush it off.

"Uh, nothing! Let's just... get to the Milano. Come on!" I ushered everyone behind me and led them down to where the Milano was docked. Thankfully, they hadn't put some sort of lock on it, so I was able to get in and get us out of there. Rocket sat down in the copilot's chair, while the others fell in somewhere behind me. Once we were out of the prison and into the void of space, I stopped the Milano and started to bite my nails, watching every exit like a hawk.

"Well, how's he gonna get to us?" Rocket pestered.

"He declined to share that information about me," I scoffed.

"Well, screw this, then! I ain't waiting around for some humie with a death wish. You got the Orb, right?" I reached into the bag and rifled around, trying to find the Orb, but it wasn't there. Defeated, I leaned back against the chair.

"No." 

"We're not leaving without the Orb."

"I'm not leaving without Peter!" Drax suddenly sat up straighter and looked out the window.

"Behold." I followed his gaze to see a figure flying right toward our ship. I had to squint, but once I did, I could make out that they were Peter, coming right for the ship. Quickly, I pressed the button to open up the hatch and nabbed Drax to get me to help him up. Peter rose up from underneath us, and each of us took an arm, helping him up and onto the ship. Peter pressed the button to get rid of his mask and turned to face me. "This one shows spirit. He shall make a keen ally in the battle against Ronan. Companion, what were you retrieving?"

"They didn't have it." His voice cracked as he looked at me with teary eyes. "My Walkman was gone." I almost felt bad for making him go through all of that without a payoff. 

"You mean this Walkman?" I pulled it out of the apron pocket and held it in front of him. Almost immediately, the sadness melted into a smile, and after taking the Walkman from my hands and putting it in his pocket, he practically yanked me into a tight hug.

"You're the best, Ally."

"You're an imbecile." We both turned to glare at Drax before Peter hopped back into the pilot's seat and got us out of there.


	9. Chapter 9

I crossed my arms and leaned against the intersection of two walls as Rocket hummed and assembled something with spare parts. I'd never heard Peter give the okay on him doing this, and something told me he'd get pretty pissed when he saw this. Peter seemed to think he was some sort of macho leader who could intimidate people, and yet he was so good at making me laugh.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Sure enough, in came Peter with an unpleasant expression on his face. "Yo! Ranger Rick! What are you doing? You can't take apart my ship without asking me." He reached down and tried to pick up one of the wires. "See, what is this?"

"Don't touch that! It's a bomb." My eyes went wide. What kind of maniac build a bomb on a ship in the middle of space?

"A bomb?"

"Yup."

"And you leave it lying around?" I moved from my position against the wall and stood beside Peter, but refused to uncross my arms.

"I was gonna put it in a box."

"What's a box gonna do?" Rocket reached into the drawer next to him and pulled out a box wrapped in bright patterned paper with a blue ribbon tied on it. As he held it up, my eyes went wide. That box was _extremely_ important to Peter, and the fact that Rocket had even touched it seemed like some sort of offense.

"How about this one?" Peter quickly reached down, knocked the gift back into the drawer, and slammed it shut.

"No! Whoa. Hey! Leave it alone."

"Why? What is it?"

"Shut up."

"Hey!" Rocket scoffed, but chose to move on when I diverted the subject.

"What's that?" I pointed to what seemed to be a large button.

"That's for if things get really hardcore. Or if you wanna blow up moons."

"No one's blowing up moons." I turned on my heel and followed Peter as stalked around the room, trying to reach out and calm him. 

"You just wanna suck the joy out of everything." Gamora wandered into the room and stood next to me as Peter and I leaned against the console. "So, listen, I'm gonna need your buyer's coordinates."

"We're heading in the right direction. For now." I sighed and turned myself to face Gamora's stern, yet uninterested, expression.

"If we're gonna work together, you might try trusting us a little bit."

"And how much do you trust me?" I squinted at her and took the Orb from her hands and she tossed it around in it. 

"I'd trust you a lot more if you told me what this was. Because I'm guessing it's some kind of weapon."

"I don't know what it is." Drax reached over and picked up the item of extreme interest. 

"If it's a weapon, we should use it against Ronan."

"Put it down, you fool. You'll destroy us all."

"Or just you, murderess."

"I let you live once, princess!" I jumped back at the sudden elevation of the conversation and found myself holding onto Peter's arm. Of course, the weirdest part was when he placed his hand over mine.

"I am not a princess!"

"Hey! Nobody is killing anybody on my ship!" Thankfully, Peter's outburst caused Drax and Gamora to stop. "We're stuck together until we get the money." Drax tossed the orb in Peter's direction.

"I have no interest in money." He pushed by the two of us aggressively. 

"Great. That means more money for the four of us." We turned as Groot huffed at us, moving his arms out slightly as though to say 'seriously?'. "For the four of us. Partners."

"We have an agreement, but I would never be partners with the likes of you." I shook my head. Gamora really did put up a fight. "I'll tell the buyer we're on our way. And Quill, your ship is filthy." A smirk grew on his face as she walked away. 

"Oh, she has no idea. If I had a black light, this place would look like a Jackson Pollock painting." Disgusted, I quickly yanked myself from Peter's grip and side-stepped away.

"You got issues, Quill."

"I've been well aware of that for the past couple of years," I laughed, shaking my head as I headed down to what Peter had distinguished as my room. But considering it had multiple bunks in it, something told me I'd have to be sharing it with the others for a while. Thinking about the loss of my freedom, I sighed and leaned against the wall. I'd barely even been in here, and yet, I didn't want to give it up, or share it with anyone else. Of course, I never wanted to know if Peter had...done anything in here. Even the thought of that made me gag.

"Hey." I turned my head as Peter slung an arm around my shoulders. "Sorry to tell you this... but you're gonna have to share your room for a while." 

"I figured just as much," I shrugged. "I'll find a way to survive against the madness."

"If they start fighting in here-"

"I'll duck out and find you, wherever you are." He raised an eyebrow at me. "You know I don't do well in confrontation."

"Yeah, but I'm sure you'll be able to get them to calm down."

"Really? The deadly assassin, the psychotic raccoon, the guy two times my size and a thousand times my body weight, and a giant tree? You think I can stop them?"

"I think you can manage them." I held up one of my arms with the opposite hand.

"Peter, look at these noodle arms! I couldn't throw a plate if it meant my life." Instead of responding with some sort of witty comeback, Peter grabbed my arms and looked down at the bandages.

"You doing better?" I pulled my arms away from him quickly, but smiled.

"Not gonna lie, hanging out with you has made it a lot better."

"You call stealing an orb, getting kidnapped and sent to prison, then breaking out of said prison 'hanging out?'" I laughed and bit my lip as I shook my head.

"It sure as hell beats working at that stupid diner." The look on his face changed, and he wrapped his arm around me again.

"Then don't go back." I scoffed.

"I have to pay my bills somehow."

"But what if you didn't have to pay your bills?" 

"I think I would call that being homeless," I laughed.

"No- how are you not getting this? You should just stay with me on this ship." I shook my head, having had this same conversation seemingly over and over again. "You wouldn't have to do anything, you wouldn't even have to try and work for your place on here."

"I don't know, Peter."

"Come on. You seem a lot happier when you're here, and I'm a lot less worried about you when I can see that you're not doing something stupid."

"Oh, yeah, _I'm_ the one who does stupid stuff," I mocked as the two of us stepped out of my room.

"Ally, I'm being serious." I took more steps away from Peter, seemingly ignoring him. "Allyson, listen to me."

"I don't want to just abandon the stability that I have. Isn't stability what everyone wants?"

"Your living situation and job are stable. You know damn well that everything else is a complete disaster."

"So what? I'm living, man."

"Please, Allyson, just stop pretending everything is fine. We both know it's not, and I'd really be a lot more comfortable if you stayed with me."

"Look, the money we get from Gamora's buyer should be enough for me to stay away from work for maybe another year. Should... give me a chance to clear my head."

"You? All alone? Doing nothing but thinking all day?" Now I was starting to get irritated.

"Get off my back, Quill." I turned on my heel and stormed into the room where Drax was sitting, just starting at the wall and messing with his knives in an unsettling way.

"The two-eyed maiden returns." I looked at him with a confused expression.

"Yes, Drax. I believe every being on this ship has two eyes."

"But your eyes are different colors. Why do you have two different eyes? Did you take one as spoils from a battle?" I laughed.

"No, I just have two different colored eyes. I don't know how it happened, but that's how they ended up. I'm sure there's a term for it, but no one ever taught it to me. So, I have one blue eye-" I pointed to my left orb. "-and one brown." He nodded as though he understood, but something told me he didn't. But it's hard to get someone to understand when you, yourself, don't get it, so I just shrugged and let it go.

"Heads up! We're inbound!" Rocket shouted. Peter emerged from down below as Drax and I made our way into the cockpit. The place we were approaching looked like... an... angry head?

"Whoa."

"What is it?"

"It's called Knowhere. The severed head of a celestial being. Be wary headed in, rodent. There are no regulations whatsoever here." Rocket steered the ship in through one of the eye sockets, bringing us into a dingy- but seemingly thriving- environment. The ship was landed in a sketchy looking docking bay, and one by one, we got off. With a feeling of uneasiness, I fought my way over to Peter and stuck by his side as we got moving.


	10. Chapter 10

"Hundreds of years ago, the Tivan Group sent workers in to mine the organic matter within the skull. Bone, brain tissue, spinal fluid. All rare resources, highly valued in black markets across the galaxy. It's dangerous and illegal work, suitable only for outlaws," Gamora explained as we wove our way through the crowds.

"Well, I come from a planet of outlaws," Peter bragged. "Billy the Kid, Bonnie and Clyde, John Stamos." I shook my head. Peter had taught me some things about Terra, and while I was still learning, I knew enough to understand they didn't come close to the kinds of outlaws out here.

"It sounds like a place which I would like to visit."

"Yeah, you should. Been meaning to get Ally out there sometime." A group of street kids ran up to us, begging and trying to feel around for anything they could steal from us. Peter grabbed onto both of my shoulders and started to usher me away from the group of little beggars. "Watch your wallets."

"Can you spare any units?" one little girl asked. My heart broke and I looked back at her, only to see Groot extend out his palm and grow a flower just for her. She smiled as he handed it to her with a kind smile, and the expression spread to my face.

"Get out of here," Peter scoffed, trying his best to get the kids out of our way without losing anything. We managed to get our way past them and stride toward a building with flashing lights and loud sound coming from the inside. "Your buyer's in there?"

"We are to wait here for his representative." A bouncer shoved a man out of what I had figured out was a club and urged him to go away.

"This is no respectable establishment. What do you expect us to do while we wait?" The bouncer took one look at Gamora, and with a look around at the sort of crowd here, I solidified my plans.

"Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I plan on not getting wasted and having to fend off scummy men all night." I paused in my steps as dots connected. "Wow, it's just like I'm back at work."

"Oh, shoot." Peter clapped a hand on my shoulder to get my attention. "I should probably refuel the Milano. You gonna be okay on your own?" I looked around in slight panic. I honestly wasn't so sure about that.

"Uh... maybe I should come with you?" I felt a hand on my other shoulder, and turned to see Gamora looking at me.

"I'll keep her company until you get back."

"Will you be okay?" I offered a smile and nodded.

"Come." Gamora ushered me further inside, right into the thick of the madness. A large table sat in the middle of it all, with a large crowd of people shouting and cheering around it. I quickly ducked down as a glass with some blue liquid was tossed in anger, and I had to guess it was some sort of gambling table. Gamora quickly pushed me to the bar and ordered each of us some sort of drink, then got us out onto some sort of overlook, where it was calm and we were the only ones there.

"This is much better," I sighed, taking a sip of the liquid that burned as it slid down my throat. "Too bad there's no good view."

"Did you have one where you lived?" I laughed as I took another sip.

"Nope... no. Actually, everything was pretty shitty. The only good thing was the fact I had a roof over my head and a job that kept it there."

"Then why do you want to go back?" I looked at her, as though somehow her face would provide some sort of answer, before chugging the rest of the drink, and regretting it.

"Oh, god, that hurts." My voice was raspy before I started coughing, but once the phlegm had moved and the burning sensation stopped, I was able to answer. "It's as close to normal as I've ever had, I suppose. Going and living with Peter on the Milano, traveling everywhere... it's not the normal life. And all I've ever wanted is normal." I sighed. "I guess you sometimes have to sacrifice for that."

Gamora opened her mouth to say something, when footsteps diverted our attention over to my right. 

"Man, you wouldn't believe what they charge for fuel out here," Peter mused, resting his hands on the railing next to me. "I might actually lose money on this job." I chuckled.

"My connection is making us wait," Gamora informed us, putting away some sort of communication device.

"It's just a negotiation tactic. Trust me, this is my specialty."

"Where your's is more 'stab, stab, those are my terms.'" I saw a hint of a smile creep onto Gamora's face at my joke.

"My father didn't stress diplomacy."

"Thanos?" I hated to turn things sour, but this guy was clearly someone we'd never want to cross paths with.

"He's not my father. When Thanos took my home world, he killed my parents right in front of me. He tortured me, turned me into a weapon. When he said he was going to destroy an entire planet for Ronan, I couldn't stand by and..."

She sighed and couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence, before turning on her heel and walking back into the fray. Peter and I both watched her walk away, and when she was gone, I turned back to look at him. My eyes fluttered down to that Walkman he loved so much and pulled the cassette part from his belt. 

"Sorry I made you risk your life for this... when I had it the whole time." I clicked down the play button and allowed _'_ Fooled Around and Fell In Love' to start playing. My eyes went back up to meet Peter's who was looking at me with an affectionate smile.

"That's okay. I'm just glad it was in good hands." I sighed and fiddled with the wire connected to the headphones.

"You're lucky your mom loved you enough to give you this. I mean, my mom loved drugs enough to give me away for money." There was silence as Peter reached down and gently held my hand that was on his Walkman. "Did you mean what you said about taking me to Earth." He smiled at me and removed the headphones from around his neck.

"It's conditional. I'll take you if you stay with me." I laughed and pushed my tongue against my cheek.

"You're never gonna give up on that, are you?" My breath caught in my throat as he stepped closer to me and hovered the headphones right near my face.

"It seems a lot more normal than what you have now." Before I could rebuttal, he set the headphones over my ears, and the music overtook all noise. Somehow, I was put under some sort of spell, and as one of his hands wrapped around my waist, and the other took one of my hands, I felt something pulling me towards him. But just as quickly as it hit me, it fell away, and I pushed him back.

"No. I can't do it, Peter." He sighed and took off the headphones.

"Please, Allyson."

"Why do you want me with you so bad?"

Before he could answer, shouting and fighting erupted from inside. Peter and I turned to look inside just to see Drax tackling Groot across the table in the middle of the room. Rolling my eyes, I stormed in with Peter on my tail to find out what the hell was going on. People had formed a circle around Drax and Groot, the former of which had his vines tied around the head of the latter. As soon as Groot released his grip, Rocket pulled out his blaster and pointed it at Drax. Before things escalated further, Gamora and I pulled the fighters apart.

"Stop it!" I shouted.

"Whoa, whoa, what are you doing?"

"This vermin speaks of affairs he knows nothing about!" Drax shouted.

"That is true!" 

"He has no respect!"

"That is also true!"

"Hold on! Hold on!" Groot got back up from the floor and loomed over everyone.

"Keep calling me vermin, tough guy! You just wanna laugh at me like everyone else!"

"Rocket, you're drunk. All right? No one is laughing at you," I tried to assure him.

"He thinks I'm some stupid thing! He does! Well, I didn't ask to get made!" A hush fell over the crowd as things started to get a little too real. "I didn't ask to be torn apart, and put back together, over and over and turned into some..." He paused to take a breath. "Some little monster." My breath caught in my throat and it started to constrict. I knew that feeling a little too well. I could never forget how what they had done to me felt.

"Rocket, no one's calling you a monster."

"He called me 'vermin'! She called me 'rodent'! Let's see if you can laugh after five or six good shots to your frickin' face!" Rocket raised the blaster again, and Peter stepped in between him and Drax.

"No, no, no, no! Four billion units! Rocket! Come on, man. Hey!" As usual, the money seemed to calm him down. "Suck it up for one more lousy night and you're rich." After a few more seconds of seething, he finally lowered the weapon.

"Fine. But I can't promise when all this is over I'm not gonna kill every last one of you jerks."

"See? That is exactly why none of you have any friends!" I had tried my best to keep myself under control, but I was really starting to lose it. "Five seconds after you meet somebody, you're already trying to kill them!" 

"We have traveled halfway across the quadrant. And Ronan is no closer to being dead!" Gamora held Drax back from attacking me as I flinched and stumbled back toward Peter. His frustration mounted, and he stormed away through the crowd.

"Drax!"

"Let him go. We don't need him."

The doors beside us opened, to reveal another one of those pink girls in a clean, white dress with her hands folded in front of her chest. She shuffled closer to us, and everyone parted to allow her through. 

"Milady Gamora. I'm here to fetch you for my master."

Gamora nodded and led us all after her.


	11. Chapter 11

There was something so eerie about the levels of terrariums that lined the entirety of the building, each filled with things both living and not.

"Okay, this isn't creepy at all," Rocket muttered, agreeing with what I was thinking.

"We house the galaxy's largest collection of fauna, relics, and species of all manner," our guide informed us. We passed by a dog in a space suit, who started growling at us before barking loudly. The woman stopped in the middle of the room and did almost a full circle to face our group. "I present to you, Taneleer Tivan, The Collector." A man in a large pelt of fur with some strange glasses turned to face us. I raised an eyebrow at him and his eccentric manner, and backed up slightly as he stepped closer and removed the glasses.

"Oh, my dear Gamora." He took one of her hands and kissed it gingerly. "How wonderful to meet in the flesh."

"Let's bypass the formalities, Tivan. We have what we discussed." His interest shifted from Gamora up to Groot.

"What is that thing there?"

"I am Groot." With his distant and creepy gaze, he crept his way closer to Groot and refused to take his eyes off of him.

"I never thought I'd meet a Groot. Sir... You must allow me to pay you now so that I may own your carcass. At the moment of your death, of course." I shook my head. This guy certainly was interesting.

"I am Groot."

"Why, so he could turn you into a frickin' chair?" Rocket sassed. 

"That's your pet?" Tivan asked Peter.

"His what?"

"Tivan." Gamora stepped in front of him to try and redirect him. "We have been halfway across the galaxy, retrieving this Orb.

"Very well, then. Let us see what you brought." Peter removed the orb from his bag and held it out to present it to Tivan. But as soon as he did, it slipped from his hand, and he had to quickly jump down to get it.

"Real smooth," I sighed as Tivan took it from Peter. He observed it and turned it in his hands, before motioning us to follow him. All of us surrounded a table with some mechanical hands on it, which he set the orb in between

"Oh, my new friends. Before creation itself, there were six singularities." He maneuvered something to start the hands turning and whirring, opening the Orb with a purple glow. Above us, a large group of purple circles appeared around us, with six different, strange objects appearing in them. "Then the universe exploded into existence, and the remnants of these systems were forged into concentrated ingots." The blinding light from the inside of the Orb distracted me, drawing my attention down to it. "These stones, it seems, can only be brandished by beings of extraordinary strength. Observe." 

We all turned around to see a large, iron being brandishing a staff with some purple glow at the end of it. 

"These carries can use the stone to mow down entire civilizations like wheat in a field." I watched as the being slammed its staff down and a wave blew through the entire planet, causing it to disintegrate into nothingness.

"There's a little pee coming out of me right now," Peter muttered.

"Once, for a moment, a group was able to share the energy amongst themselves, but even they were quickly destroyed by it." A group of hooded men started jarring and shaking, until they died in a purple explosion.

The Orb clicked behind us, and we turned around to see that the same purple stone we'd just seen destroy everything hovering between the two silver halves.

"Beautiful! Beyond compare."

"Blah, blah, blah. We're all very fascinated, whitey. But we'd like to get paid." Just before the circles disappeared, my eyes wandered to the circle of red, where I noticed a young girl slam down a staff she was holding, and a red shock wave decimated a bunch of aliens that surrounded her. I cocked my head and stepped closer, pointing at the child with black hair and icy eyes in a torn dress. 

"Who's that?" Tivan followed my line and smiled.

"A girl of Terra. She has phenomenal strength even she does not understand."

"She's a kid."

"She is one of the most powerful beings in the universe, even without that stone. But that sort of strength comes with a price, one which she has yet to pay." He made the circles disappear and focused back on Rocket's complaints.

"How would you like to get paid?" 

"What do you think, fancy man? Units!" He reached into his drawer to get something.

"Very well, then." I had failed to notice Tivan's servant getting closer to the orb with wide eyes, until now.

"Carina. Stand back," he ordered.

"I will no longer be your slave!" 

She slammed her hand down and strangled the stone, but as soon as she did, lights began to shoot out from it and shatter the glass around us. Peter grabbed onto my waist and dragged me down into a well deep enough that we couldn't be hit. We each had one arm around the others waist, while the others were tightly laced with each other, with foreheads pressed together. Carina screamed as the power of the orb fully consumed her, and as her body exploded and sent out a shock wave, and though I didn't think it was possible, Peter and I moved closer to each other.

The smell of smoke around us and the calm after the storm seemed to indicate that it was over, and with hands still linked, Peter and I peered over the top of the well to see everything either broken, sparking, or burnt. Gamora quickly jumped out from her hiding space and slammed the Orb shut, taking it from the device and storming out with Peter and I on her heels.

"How could I think Tivan could contain whatever was within the Orb?" She clearly seemed to think this was her fault, even though it was nowhere close.

"What do you still have it for?" Rocket shouted, dragging his hands down his face.

"What are we gonna do, leave it in there?"

"I can't believe you had that in your purse!"

"It's not a purse, it's a knapsack!" 

"Not important, Peter!" I snapped.

"We have to get this Orb to Nova Corps. There's a chance they can contain it."

"Are you kidding me? We're wanted by the Nova Corps. Just give it to Ronan!"

"So he can destroy the galaxy?"

"What are you, some saint all of a sudden? What has the galaxy ever done for you? Why would you wanna save it?"

"Because I'm one of the idiots who lives in it." Gamora reached out and spun me to face her.

"Allyson, listen to me. We cannot allow the Stone to fall into Ronan's hands. We have to go back to the ship, and deliver it to Nova." 

"Right, right, okay. I think you're right."

"Or we could give it so somebody who's not going to arrest us who's really nice for a whole lot of money." I turned to glare at Peter. "I think it's a really good balance between both of yours points of view."

"You're despicable," Gamora snapped. "Dishonorable. Faithless!" She stomped away from us and I set my hands on my hips.

"Nice going, man." 

Gamora didn't get very far, however. Only a few paces in front of her was Drax, cackling as a huge group of ships approached and hovered around him.

"Oh, no."

"At last! I shall meet my foe and destroy him." His foe? That could only be one person...

"You called Ronan?"

"Quill!" Peter and I snapped our eyes over to a group of Ravagers, with Yondu as their leader. Great. "Don't you move, boy!" 

I grabbed Peter's hand and led him away from the crowd of people, trying to weave our way away from the Ravagers and Ronan. We stumbled across a different part of the docking bay, where some industrial and identical ships were parked. As soon as one opened, I threw the pilot out and shoved Peter inside. It looked as though Gamora and Rocket had followed, but Groot couldn't go with him. In a split second decision, I didn't get in the ship and instead chose to go back with Groot and help Drax.

"You, Gamora, and Rocket get that orb out of here. Drax, Groot, and I will get the Milano and meet up with you, I promise."

"What? Wait, Ally-" Before he could say anything more, I shut the door on him and raced over to Groot.

"Come on, let's go get Drax out of here."


	12. Chapter 12

I had run far ahead of Groot to try and get back to Drax before he got himself killed, but it was too late. I couldn't see Drax anywhere, but Ronan still stood there, looming with a smirk on his face as though he had done something great. I could feel my feet frozen in place. The man we had been chasing all this time was here, right in front of me without taking notice, and I could either do something, or hope that he didn't notice.

"Ronan!"

_What the hell did you just do, Allyson?_

He turned around and looked at me with a steely gaze that sent chills down my spine. His eyes were beady and almost sunken into his skull, making him vaguely resemble a corpse. His teeth were gnashed together in his mouth as he growled at me standing in my place. Intense chills shot through me, and for a second, I regretted saying anything. But then, the adrenaline hit, and as he got closer to me, I somehow felt ready to take him down.

He lunged at me, and I quickly shot myself out to the side, grabbing onto the cracks in a building and getting out of the way. I used the building to boost myself off and slam myself into him, ignoring the sharp pain as I struck the armor he was wearing. He quickly threw me off of him and slammed my back down onto the mud, ripping open part of the zipper track on the back of the dress. He grabbed the large hammer he had been using and raised it to slam it down on my head, but I quickly rolled out of the way and wrapped my noodle arms around it as he slammed one of the flat ends down on the ground. Him lifting it back up hoisted me off the ground, and I kicked his stomach before he swung out to get me off of the hammer.

I hesitated for a moment to throw my hair out of my face so that I could see him, and that's when he wrapped his hands tight around my neck and pinned me down to the ground. I started to panic, so I started thrashing and kicking at him, managing to nail him in the knee cap. He stepped back and let go before falling to the ground. I could feel my chest burning from the lack of air, but ignored it and stretched out to slam Ronan's head against the ground. I had done it twice, trying to break his helmet, before he managed to get ahold of me and throw me back onto the ground. I tried my best to react and knock him back onto the ground, when he struck some sort of nerve, or maybe a pressure point, and I collapsed onto the ground. I was immobile and couldn't open my eyes but I could still hear and feel. There was the whirring of a ship getting closer, likely Ronan's ship, and I could feel the intense heat from the jet.

I felt like such a failure as I heard him get onto his ship and take off, leaving us stranded on Knowhere with a missing Drax, a lagging Groot, and me immobilized. I didn't know what had happened to Peter, Rocket, and Gamora, so all I could do was hope that they were fine. I tried my best to move something, to twitch or open my eyes, but as hard as I thought, nothing happened. My panic started to increase as I heard large footsteps lumbering toward me, the ground shaking beneath me as they got closer. If I could scream, I would have, but all I could do was lay there.

"I am Groot?"

My heart rate and mind calmed as I felt myself getting picked up and held on my feet. A sharp pain in my neck shot my eyes open, but I was able to move and see again, thankfully. Groot had his upper body slightly tilted as he looked down at me, clearly trying to tell if I was okay. I was able to straighten myself up, and I was about to reassure him, when I remembered that we were still missing one of us.

"Drax!" 

I looked around, hoping to spot him tossed in a corner somewhere, or maybe shambling over in our direction. Thankfully, Groot had a much higher vantage point than I did, and he seemed to spot him. He lumbered his way over to a pool of spinal fluid and made his arms grow to reach deep down into it, and pulled out an unconscious Drax.

"Oh, my god..." I rushed over and crouched down by Drax's side, ignoring the foul smell that overwhelmed my senses. "Groot, what do I do?"

"I am Groot." I huffed.

"Right. Forgot I can't understand you." 

He lifted one of his hands up and grew some sort of sharp spine on his finger. I closed my eyes and flinched as he stuck it straight into Drax's chest, causing yellowish-green liquid to spurt from his chest. For a few seconds, nothing happened, then he shot up and started coughing out the liquid. I reached out and helped hold him up as he coughed it all out.

"Whoa, whoa, there you go." Once he seemed to catch his breath, Groot removed the spine from Drax's chest, allowing him to start breathing normally again. One of those industrial ships suddenly crash-landed near us, and out from it emerged a seething Rocket.

"Blasted idiot. They're all idiots!" I looked around and hoped that maybe Peter or Gamora would come crashing down next, but it seemed Rocket was the only one. "Quill just got himself captured." 

My heart caught in my throat. How could he get caught? Any number of things could have happened to him at this point, and there was nothing I could do about it down here.

"None of this ever would have happened if you didn't try to single-handedly take on a frickin' army."

"You're right," Drax sighed, his voice still slightly weak. "I was a fool. All the anger, all the rage, was just to cover my loss." Sympathy spread through me, and I moved one of my hands to rest on Drax's shoulder.

"Oh, boo-hoo-hoo. 'My wife and child are dead.'" Groot gasped at Rocket's lack of empathy, while anger started to overtake me. "Oh, I don't care if it's mean! Everybody's got dead people. It's no excuse to get everybody else dead along the way."

"You could at least try to be nice about it," I snapped back at him, standing up. "Yeah, everyone's been through shit, but isn't that more of a reason to be nice to them? We all remember how much it hurts, so why would you want to make them feel worse?"

"Girly, you have no idea how it feels to be pulled apart." 

That was it. The last straw.

"Of course I do! That's what they did to me! They yanked on me until I couldn't stretch anymore, and then some! Okay? I don't have joints, I have rubber! All those needles, all those tests, all for me to get out and be a freak in the real world! I can try and be as normal as I want, but I know I'll never be. Because even if they take away the stretch, all I can remember is how much it hurt, how much I wanted to die while I was in there, and it flares up!" I stepped back and took a breath to keep myself from lunging at Rocket and killing him.

"That is why you wear the bandages," Drax observed. Slowly, I nodded and crossed my arms.

"You get it into your head that you should distract yourself with a more intense pain than what's playing on repeat in your head." Rocket stared in silence for a moment, before seemingly shrugging it off.

"Come on, Groot. Ronan has the Stone. The only chance we got is to get to the other side of the universe as fast as we can, and maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to live full lives before that whack-job ever gets there." Groot stood up.

"I am Groot."

" _Save them?_ How?"

"I am Groot."

"I know they're the only friends that we ever had, but there's an army of Ravagers around them." I perked my head up. 

"Did you say Ravagers?" He nodded. "They're not that tough."

"They are when there's only two of us!" I smirked.

"Three." Something about that seemed to motivate Drax, as he stood up and placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Four." Rocket grunted and seemed to not know what to do with his anger for a moment, before repeatedly kicking a patch of grass behind him.

"Aw. You're making me... beat... up grass!" 

I broke away from the group and knelt down, spinning Rocket around so I was threateningly close to him.

"Listen, you can either let us come with you, or I can have Drax pick you up and punt you like a football. Your call."

"Football?"

"Terran thing," I shrugged. "Don't change the subject." He didn't give an answer this time. "You know I'm not gonna give up as long as Peter's in danger." He grunted and turned away.

"Fine." 

I tried not to smile like an idiot, but it was too tempting.

"Then we should go now."


	13. Chapter 13

"Are you sure about this?" Rocket asked as I piloted the Milano right to the large ship in the center of the fleet.

"Yup. That one's Yondu's alright. Been on it a couple of times myself."

"What were you doing on a Ravager ship."

"Pretty sure Peter was trying to impress me. But that's besides the point." I turned my head around and yelled down the well, "You ready?"

"I am having a hard time walking in this space suit," he grunted, struggling to swing his arm up to open the door.

"Aren't you like, made of muscle?" I got no response, so I simply rolled my eyes and stretched out to open it down below. "Okay, once I feel the ship dip, that means Drax is up there. As soon as that happens, I'll fire a couple of shots at their cannons so that I don't damage it. That should get their attention. And Drax? You should only fire if they turn hostile, okay?" 

" _Yes, two-eyed maiden."_ I laughed.

"We'll work on that." The ship suddenly dipped down from the addition of weight, and on cue, I fired at their cannons a couple times, shaking the large ship in front of us. It took a few moments, but eventually, a group of Ravagers- including Yondu- emerged and stood by the window in the cockpit. One of the pilots communicated something to Yondu, and Rocket took his turn.

"Attention, idiots." I smirked. I had suggested he called them that, but I'd thought he would use a stronger word. "The lunatic on top of this craft is holding a Hadron Enforcer. It's a weapon of my own design." There was silence on the other line. "If you don't hand over out companions now, he's gonna tear your ship a new one. A very big new one!" Still no response. "I'm giving you to the count of five! Five... four... three..." I could see Ravagers starting to scramble inside the ship. 

" _Rocket, it's me, for God sakes!"_ I sighed in relief at the sound of Peter's voice. _"We figured it out! We're fine!"_

"Oh, hey, Quill. What's going on?" I snickered at how nonchalant Rocket was trying to be.

" _What's going on is we have everything figured out. Get your butts on this ship!"_ I shook my head, but steered the Milano into the docking bay and led the three behind me up to meet Peter and Gamora. As soon as I was even within Peter's eyeline, he took large strides toward me and wrapped me into a tight hug. I coughed and stood there for a few awkward seconds, caught completely off guard by the gesture, before laughing and hugging him back. "The hell happened to you?"

"Ronan," I grumbled. "But I put up a good fight, all things considered." 

"You said you had it figured out?" I rolled my eyes. Of course Rocket just wanted to get down to business. 

"Yeah. Come on." With an arm draped lazily around my shoulder, Peter led all of us into a common room, where we sat and stood around Peter and Gamora as he explained the plan. "I got Yondu to agree to helping me steal the Orb back."

"

I raised an eyebrow. What did he just say?

"You call that 'figured it out'?" Rocket mocked. "We're gonna rob the guys who just beat us senseless."

"Oh, you want to talk about senseless? How about trying to save us by blowing us up?"

"We were only gonna blow you up if they didn't turn you over!"

"Hey, I said if they get hostile," I snapped, pointing an accusatory finger at Rocket.

"And how on earth were they gonna turn us over when you only gave them a count of five?"

"We didn't have time to work out the minutiae of the plan. This is what we get for acting altruistically."

"I am Groot."

"They _are_ ungrateful." I sighed and stood up.

"What's important now is we get the Ravagers' army to help us save Xandar."

"So we can give the stone to Yondu, who's just gonna sell to somebody even worse?" I hadn't thought of that a moment ago.

"We'll figure that part out. We have to stop Ronan."

"How?"

"I have a plan." I crossed my arms and turned to look at Peter. The first plan didn't sound that great, so this one had better be phenomenal.

"You have a plan?"

"Yes."

"First of all, you're copying me from when I said I had a plan."

"No, I'm not. People say that all the time. It's not that unique of a thing to say."

"Secondly, I don't even believe you have a plan."

"I have... part of a plan!"

And there it was...

"What percentage of a plan do you have?" Maybe there was enough to just bullshit the ending of it and hope that it worked.

"You don't get to ask questions after the nonsense you pulled on Knowhere," Gamora shouted at Drax.

"I just saved Quill." It was a weak defense, but better than nothing.

"We've already established that you destroying the ship that I'm on is not saving me."

"When did we establish it?" I blinked a couple of times, trying to suspend my disbelief. Gamora was right when she said we were the biggest idiots in the galaxy.

"Like three seconds ago!"

"I wasn't listening. I was thinking of something else." I groaned and threw my head back in frustration. We were going to get nowhere with this.

"She's right. You don't get an opinion. What percentage?" 

"I don't know. Twelve percent." My eyes widened as my jaw slackened slightly. That wasn't even a plan; that was barely even an idea!

"Twelve percent?" Rocket started spouting harsh laughter, appalled at Peter's use of the word 'plan.'

"That's a fake laugh," Peter accused.

"It's real!"

"Totally fake."

"That is the most real, authentic, hysterical laugh of my entire life because that is not a plan."

"It's barely a concept," I added.

"You're taking their side?"

"I am Groot."

"So what? It's better than eleven percent? What the hell does that have to do with anything?"

"Thank you, Groot. Thank you. See? Groot's the only one of you who has a clue." I looked over at the tree creature to see him bite off one of the plants that was growing on his arm and swallow it. Having witnessed that, I turned to Peter and shot him a judgmental look. He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed before turning back to face everyone. "Guys. Come on. Yondu is gonna be here in two seconds. He expects to hear this big plan of ours. I need your help. I look around at us, you know what I see? Losers." I shot him another look as my ego took a hit. "I mean, like, folks who have lost stuff. And we have. Man, we have. All of us. Our homes, our families, normal lives. And, usually, life takes more than it gives. But not today. Today, it's given us something. It has given us a chance."

"To do what?" Drax finally piped up.

"To give a shit. For once. Not run away." Everyone looked at each other awkwardly, sitting and standing in a seemingly reflective silence. "I, for one, am not gonna sit by and watch as Ronan wipes out billions of innocent lives."

"But, Quill, stopping Ronan, it's impossible," Rocket protested in his usual pessimistic manner. "You're asking us to die." It almost seemed like Peter was defeated as he ran a hand down his face.

"Yeah, I guess I am." He tried to stammer his way through the next sentence, but nothing seemed to come out. I looked back at him, trying to come up with something to say. At first there was nothing coming to mind, until something suddenly struck me.

"Peter." He turned around to face me, something resembling eagerness behind his eyes. "I've lived my entire life trying to be normal, surrounded by people who wanted to take advantage of me; people I would consider my enemies. I will be grateful to die among my friends."

Something about that seemed to spark something in everyone else. Peter's expression shifted as he took steps closer to me, and Drax stood up.

"You are an honorable man, Quill. I will fight beside you." I smiled. That was the first time any of the others had complimented Peter. "And in the end, I will see my wife and daughter again." We all turned our attention to Groot as he stood.

"I am Groot." Gamora smiled and placed a hand on my shoulder.

"I am with you, until the end of this line."

That left only Rocket. Everyone looked at him expectantly, trying to get a response out of him. He looked around, as though lost, at first, before caving.

"Oh, what the hell. I don't got that long of a lifespan, anyway." He pushed himself up to stand on the box he had been previously sitting on. "Now I'm standing. Y'all happy?"

"It's better than nothing," I laughed.

"We're all standing up now. Bunch of jackasses, standing in a circle."

"Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but this jackass would like to change out of her ripped uniform." I jumped as Peter placed a hand on my back, where the zipper had ripped open. His hands were cold and hardened by callouses.

"Everyone take time to get what you need. We'll tell Yondu the semblance of a plan when we're ready." I started to walk away with the others, but Peter nabbed me and drew my attention back to him. "Hold on. I have something for you."

He led me down the familiar halls to the place that was his room.

"You're gonna hate me for thinking this far ahead... But while the others are scrambling to find their own clothes, I have these for you." 

He reached into the top drawer and pulled out a bunch of stuff and set it down into my hands. They were just some simple clothes, but I recognized them. I must have left them here, way back when I first met Peter.

He then reached into the closet and yanked a long, burnt burgundy jacket off its hanger, one that would go down to my ankles, at least. But that wasn't what caused me to scoff.

"Peter, you're kidding."

"Your very own Ravager jacket, Miss Murray." I made a face as I snatched it from him.

"I hate you. Now, no peeking." I walked over around the other side of the bed while he laughed.

"Yes, ma'am!" He stuck the headphones for his Walkman and turned to face the other wall as I stepped into the new clothes. My old uniform fell away from my body, and it was the most liberating feeling. I had gone from uniform to uniform, and now I was finally in normal clothes.

Although, I suppose the jacket could technically be considered a uniform.

As soon as I was changed, I yanked the headphones off Peter's head and stood in a slight dramatic pose. A smile spread onto his face, and he whistled.

"You look badass, Allyson."

"Wow, the full name," I teased. "I must really look great." His smile widened as he stood.

"Where's all this confidence coming from?" I shrugged.

"Maybe the break from false normalcy? I thought I would hate this life, but I'm actually loving it. Waiting tables has no rush." I cast a scornful gaze toward the destroyed uniform. "So you can burn that. I'm with you now."


	14. Chapter 14

"The Stone reacts to anything organic," Gamora informed the Ravagers surrounding us. "The bigger the target, the bigger the power surge. _"_

 _"_ All Ronan's got to do is touch the Stone to the planet's surface, and zap. All plants, animals, Nova Corps..." 

_"_ Everything will die." 

_"_ So Ronan does not make the surface." I had offered to give Yondu the plan, seeing as how I had come up with the bulk of it. "Rocket will lead a team to blow a hole in the Dark Aster's starboard hull. Then, our craft and Yondu's will enter."

"Won't there be hundreds of Sakaaran soldiers inside?" Kraglin- essentially Yondu's right-hand man- asked. 

"I think of Sakaaran as paper people," Drax stated. Kraglin chuckled and shoved Drax's arm, as though he thought it was some sort of joke. But Drax _could_ easily cut through them. I went back to looking around at our screens that detailed our plan. 

"Once they know we're on board, Ronan will isolate himself behind impenetrable security doors on deck," Gamora continued, "which I can disable by dismantling the power source."

"We'll make it to the flight deck, and I'll use the Hadron Enforcer to kill Ronan."

"Once Ronan is dead, we will retrieve the Stone." Gamora grabbed a tray of silver orbs and handed it off to a Ravager to give it to his and our own team. "Use these devices to contain it."

"If you touch it, it will kill you," I warned with a stern expression, focusing my eyes directly on Rocket, because I knew he would be the most likely to try and just touch and take it.

"I'll contact one of the Nova officers who arrested us. Hopefully, they'll believe we're there to help."

"There's one more thing we need to complete the plan. That guy's eye." Rocket pointed to a Ravager with a mechanical eye, and I sighed.

"No! No, we don't. No, we don't need that guy's eye."

"No, seriously, I need it! It's important to me." Rocket's snickering and giggling gave him away, and I turned around to get the call through to one of the Nova officers.

"I think Rocket has a robotic parts fetish," I muttered as Peter stepped up to stand beside me. Upon hearing my comment, he chuckled before tapping one of my arms.

"No bandages?" I shrugged.

"I got tired of having to change them. Plus, I really don't think I need them anymore. And hopefully, the only time I'll ever need them is battle injuries." I pulled up the text editor for the message and stepped aside so that Peter could type whatever it was he wanted to say. But I couldn't help myself from peeking over his shoulder as he wrote it.

_Corpsman Dey,_

_I know you have no reason to believe me, but I need to warn you Ronan is in possession of an Infinity Stone, and is heading straight toward Xandar. We're going to do our best, but we need your fleet's help to blast a hole into the Dark Aster._

_If it helps any, my crew just escaped prison, so we'd have no other reason to risk coming to Xandar to help. I'm an asshole, but I'm not one hundred percent a dick._

_-Quill_

I laughed and leaned against his shoulder as he sent it.

"You were so close to an actual, formal message there."

"Well, couldn't make it too fancy. Otherwise it would sound like you wrote it," he teased, grabbing my hand and spinning me around, causing me to laugh again.

" _Ronan's fleet has been spotted, and will arrive in T-minus fifteen minutes."_ The ship had already been on the way to Xandar, and it seemed we were a lot closer than I thought we were.

"Guess we better get a move on." I squeezed the crook of his elbow and moved to walk away, but Yondu's voice, and how threateningly close he got to Peter's face, stopped me in my tracks.

"Remember, boy. At the end of all of this, I get the Stone. You cross me, we kill you all," he threatened. I turned Peter around to face me as soon as Yondu was out of earshot.

"You're going to give him a deadly weapon? Are you kidding me?" He sighed and rested his hands on my arms.

"I don't really have much of a choice, do I? I'm not risking our lives, only to have us killed because we won't give something up to Yondu."

"So then we'll just fight for it again."

My breath suddenly hitched in my throat as he leaned forward and whispered into my ear, "I have another plan." I leaned back to look him in the eyes.

"It better work. Otherwise, the galaxy is screwed all over again." I wandered over to one of the tables and picked up a large knife, looking to over before sliding it into the small pocket on my arm. "Just in case. Now, come on. We should get on the Milano."

He nodded and we made our way out of the chaotic room where the Ravagers were bustling around, down the hall to the docking bay. The others slowly fed their way in to join us, and as we were making our way down the hall, I felt a sudden itch on my foot, just underneath the top of my foot. I lifted up my foot and hopped up and down as I scratched it, almost falling on my face before I could set my foot back down again.

One by one, we climbed into the Milano and took our seats. I climbed into the co-pilot's seat and smirked at Peter next to me as we got ready to go. Everyone except for Groot had strapped in, mainly because we were short one chair, and I could feel the adrenaline starting to take over me, and my smile started to grow.

_"Let's go get 'em, boys!"_

Our entire fleet dropped down, and my eyes flashed over to the ship Rocket was piloting before he went in the other direction. As I looked around, it started to hit me just how much of this plan relied on chance, and it was just now dawning on me that maybe it wouldn't work.

"This is a terrible plan," I muttered.

"Hey, you're the one who said you wanted to die among friends." I made a face at Peter before focusing back on keeping us a great enough distance that we could get onto Ronan's ship the moment an opening became available.

"There he is," I sighed as the Dark Aster pulled up high above us. It was far enough away that we still had some time, but as soon as it got close, things were going to have to happen very quickly. "All right, everyone get ready to fire!" I ordered the fleet. The rest of the Ravagers, along with a couple of cannons, pulled up behind us and got into position.

_"Fire!"_

Once Yondu gave the order, the cannons shot two large balls of energy straight at the shield around their ship, slowly consuming it and taking it down.

_"Cover it down! Submerge!"_

The part of the fleet that was meant to attack dove under the shield and maneuvered our way closer to the large, ominous ship above us.

"Rocket, hurry!" Peter shouted as his ship shot past us.

As soon as the orange electricity devouring the shield disappeared, Rocket and the other two ships he was leading dove beneath the Dark Aster and shot at the weak spot we had found earlier. But almost as soon as they did, a huge fleet of Ronan's ships shot out from it and started to dive toward Xandar.

"Peter!"

"Yeah, I see them." He tried his best to shoot at all of the ships, but a large amount slipped through, leaving the Ravagers to deal with them. "We just have to get closer."

The jets of Ronan's ship suddenly activated, and although we still had a few moments until the ship would be able to take off, but I was still starting to panic. Rocket and the other two ships started firing faster, and just as the Dark Aster started to slowly push itself forward, the side of the ship blew open. 

_"Quill, Yondu, now!"_

Peter and I lurched the levers all the way forward and started to push ourselves through the field of Ronan's ships, blasting that any ones that were in our way. A sudden explosion in front of us caused the Milano to lurch down, right when there was another explosion behind us.

_"Aw, hell!"_ Yondu shouted. _"I'm going down, Quill! No more games with me, boy! I'll see you at the end of this."_

The Milano lurched from side to side as we wove our way through the field of Ronan's ship, a sudden blast to the side of our own ship jarring me.

"There are too many of them, Rocket! We'll never make it up there!"

Right at that moment, a fleet of gold and blue ships pulled up all around us, and my smile returned. They had listened.

" _Peter Quill. This is Denarian Saal of the Nova Corps. For the record, I advised against trusting you here."_

"They got my 'dick' message!"

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Saal," I deadpanned.

_"Prove me wrong."_

That rush of adrenaline I had felt before, it had come back. I slammed the lever forward as far as it would go to kick us into almost an overdrive, and we had a straight shot right into the hole Rocket had made. The ship banged, slammed, and skidded through the opening, causing all of us to lean back and cringe... except for Drax.

"Yes!" He starting cackling like a madman, while the rest of us just looked at each other uncomfortably until we were able to get off the ground again. A large group of Ronan's soldiers were trying to shoot at us, but as the Milano spun around, we managed to knock out a majority of them with the wings, and blasted at the others. "Yes!"

I smiled and took a few seconds to catch my breath before jumping out.

_Here we go._


	15. Chapter 15

The door in front of us turned and slid open, and the five of us carefully crept our way into the smoke-filled room, weapons armed and ready to strike if something tried to stop us.

"I can barely see." I had to agree with Drax. As soon as the door closed behind us, all light had been stopped from entering.

"We should've thought of this before we got off the ship..."

A glow out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. I flickered my eyes over to the figure I assumed to be Groot, considering how tall they were, to see small orbs of light floating from his hand. As they got into the air, they sprouted wings, and the little fireflies started to fly around our heads. I smiled and reached out to catch one between my hands, then gently released it in Gamora's direction. I could have sworn I caught a smile on her face as it flew toward her. This must be what those summer nights on Terra were like, the ones Peter had told me about. The childlike wonder and amazement in my chest as lights flew around us and started to guide the way. The only things missing were blades of grass and a starry sky above.

"When did you learn to do that?" Drax asked with a slightly breathy voice, clearly as amazed as I was.

"Pretty sure the answer is 'I am Groot.'" I shot Peter an unamused look.

"You _had_ to ruin it."

"The flight deck is three hundred meters away." We started to follow the trail of fireflies as they found their way toward our destination.

"I want you all to know that I am grateful for your acceptance after my blunders. It is pleasing to once again have friends." I looked back at Drax and smiled. "You, Quill, are my friend."

"Thanks."

"This dumb tree here is my friend."

"Mmm."

"This two-eyed maiden is my friend." I laughed.

"Again, we'll work on it. But thanks, Drax."

"And this green whore, she, too-"

"Oh, you must stop!" Gamora shouted.

My heart jumped in my throat as a figure jumped down from above and blocked our way. Her head was blue and purple, with one mechanical eye and one normal. In fact, several parts of her appeared to be mechanical, even though she looked as though she were a living being. She also looked extremely angry, and her dead eyes were set on Gamora.

"Gamora, look at what you have done." Her voice was deep and sultry, with a cold undertone coming to the surface. "You have always been weak. You stupid, traitorous-" 

Suddenly, Drax fired a blast at her with his bazooka, sending her flying back against the wall and interrupting her monologue. We all turned to look at him with varying expressions.

"Nobody talks to my friends like that."

"Head to the flight deck," Gamora ordered the rest of us. "I'll shut down the power to the security doors." I nodded and led the others down the trail of fireflies. We had to hurry, otherwise the plan wouldn't work, and although improvising had worked for us in the prison, success on the first try was much more important when lives were at stake.

We had made it down to the entrance of the flight deck, when a large group of soldiers stood in our way, led by a familiar face. I had long forgotten his name, but I knew him as he guy who had tried to take the Orb from us back when I had first joined Peter.

"Star Lord."

"Finally." 

He immediately lunged at Peter and threw him to the ground, while the rest of his soldiers rushed toward the three of us. I yanked the knife out from the pocket on my arm and sliced the stomach of one of the soldiers that rushed at me. He recoiled from the injury, and I kicked him right where I had slashed him to knock him down, then stretched out my arm to grab and throw another soldier that was trying to attack me. Drax killed two soldiers before getting back up on his feet.

"You thief." He chucked a knife at another soldier before charging right at the leader of their troop.

"He's gonna get himself killed..."

I stabbed a soldier running up from behind me in the throat before stretching out my leg and kicking him- I think his name was Korath- square in the chest. He reeled back in shock and focused his terrifying eyes on me, but I wasn't about to get rattled. Instead, I launched myself straight at him and stabbed my knife into his arm. I had almost relied on him getting phased by the injury, but instead, he just looked at the wound for a second before grabbing my neck with both hands and painfully threw me onto the ground. Knocking the wind out of me, I coughed and could do nothing but lay on the floor as he sneered at me.

"You will never make it to Ronan." 

Peter suddenly swooped down, wearing his helmet, and blasted at the soldiers while Drax focused on attacking Korath. I looked around at Groot, Peter, and Drax all fighting as hard as they could, and I suddenly couldn't feel the pain in my chest. I shot up and wrapped my arms around Korath's neck from behind, shocking him and allowing me to throw him onto the ground. Yelling, I then picked him up and slammed his body against a wall and caused him to scream.

"Two-eyed maiden!" I felt someone yank me off of Korath, and Drax slammed his hands against the man's neck.

"Finger to the throat means death." He started to grip one of the devices on Korath's head, but I couldn't let Drax do this.

"Drax, no!" He hesitated and looked back at me.

"Why should I not kill him." I walked back over to Korath and held him up against the wall.

"This is my job." I dug my fingernails into the device and yanked it out of the side of his head and allowed his body to fall to the floor, twitching and sparking. Peter came up beside me as I dropped the device in disgust, while Drax looked down at Korath.

"Metaphor."

"Yeah, sorta." We were about to enter the flight deck, when another group of soldiers rushed at us. "Oh, no."

Suddenly, Groot made his arm grow and ran a few if the soldiers clean through, then used them to slap around all the others and kill all of them in just a few seconds. We all stood there in shock as Groot looked back at us with a goofy smile.

"Why can't you do that?" Peter asked, pointing at Groot.

"Oh, yeah, because I can run people through with my hands," I sassed, crossing my arms and raising an eyebrow at him. "Also, we're not wasting time on this. Come on." 

I stood by the door and waited for it to open, when the ship suddenly rattled with explosions, sending all of us flying to the ground and slamming my head against the metal. Though I definitely had a concussion, there were more soldiers coming toward us, so I didn't have time to rest. I jumped up and started slashing at soldiers while Peter fired at as many as he could, and Groot and Drax threw them around like rag dolls.

_"Quill, Allyson, you've gotta hurry!"_ Rocket suddenly shouted over the comm. _"The city's been evacuated, but we're getting our asses kicked down here."_

"Gamora hasn't opened the door." A soldier grabbed me from behind, but I jumped back and threw him off of me.

" _She better hurry!"_ I grabbed the last soldier and threw him against the wall, then the four of us rushed up to the doors and tried to open them. Peter fired his blasters a bunch of times, but it did nothing, so Groot started slamming his hands against it repeatedly to try and break it open. He slammed his fists against it for what seemed like the millionth time, when the doors finally opened, only to be greeted by more soldiers.

"Jesus, these guys never give up."

Just as I was about to jump at them, a green orb shot through the wall and took out one of the soldiers. From the hole that had been created, Gamora jumped out and blasted the other soldier that was waiting for us. We ran to greet her and stood in a formation so that Peter was perfectly guarded as he held up the Hadron enforcer to blast Ronan. He turned around to look at us just as Peter locked onto him, and Peter fired before he could react. We all ducked and closed our eyes as the large blast shook the ship again.

That was it. Slowly, everyone stood and looked at the cloud of blue dust. Peter smiled as he removed his mask and looked at what he had done. It was over, and now all we had to do was snag the Stone and get out of here.

"You did it!"

But the victory was short-lived as a purple glow radiated from the cloud and started to clear it. From it, a figure stood and turned around to glare at us. Ronan had survived, and now we were out of ideas. 

My heart jumped as he raised his hammer and aimed it straight at Peter, then twisted it to send out a wave that knocked all of us back, thankfully without killing anyone. As soon as he had been knocked down, Drax shot up and raced toward Ronan, but he simply grabbed Drax by his neck and started to strangle him.

"I was mistaken," he taunted in a gravely voice. "I do remember your family. Their screams were pitiful, and I-"

Rocket's ship suddenly slammed through the window and started to skid right toward us. Arms wrapped around me and threw me to the ground, and I closed my eyes and braced myself as one of the ships wings got stuck in the wall right above us. I tried my best to keep myself calm as everything started to crumble around us, and I could feel the ship falling as the smell of smoke invaded my nostrils. Peter hoisted me up and helped me stand as we all looked around at how wrong everything had gone. My head whipped around to the ship to see Rocket unconscious in the cockpit, and quickly pushed out of Peter's arms to get him out of there. Gamora dragged Drax up to the center, and we all crouched down. I passed Rocket off to Gamora, because I could feel my arms were growing weaker, and Peter once again moved to hold me.

"I guess this is it..." I muttered, the reality of our imminent demises hitting me.

"Don't worry. I've got you until the end." I looked up at Peter and smiled, waiting for the end to come.

That was, until I noticed branches and twigs starting to grow in a sphere, encasing us in some sort of shield. Rocket came to as we all looked back at Groot, and not long after, it dawned on him just what was happening. My heart dropped in my chest as I looked at the smile on the tree's face. He sent out more of those little fireflies to light the dark shield.

"No, Groot!" Rocket begged. "You can't. You'll die. Why are you doing this? Why?" Groot moved one of the branches up to wipe the tears from Rocket's eyes.

"We... are... Groot..."

I swallowed down my tears, hard, and braced myself as the ship crashed to the ground and fell to pieces.


	16. Chapter 16

Slowly, my eyes fluttered open to the sounds of ' _Ooh Child'_ faintly playing from somewhere. When the ship crashed, the play button must have gotten hit on the stereo for the Milano. From beneath me, Peter groaned and started to roll over, so I did my best to move myself off of him. As soon as his eyes opened and he registered what was going on, I helped him sit up and we looked around at the carnage. Everyone appeared to be okay, except for Rocket, who was holding the single twig from Groot that had survived the crash and sobbing.

"I called him an idiot." People were starting to surround us, investigating what the hell had just happened here.

And from the rubble, Ronan emerged again, that same taunting, purple glow emanating from his hammer. Rocket stood up in front of him, and my eyes went wide. If we didn't stop him now, it was all over. 

"You killed Groot!" Rocket tried to rush at Ronan, but he used the Stone to knock him to the ground.

"Behold! Your guardians of the galaxy. What fruit have they wrought? Only that my father and his father shall finally know vengeance." My eyes flickered over to where Rocket was to see him starting to assemble something from the pieces of the crashed ships. "People of Xandar, the time has come to rejoice and renounce your paltry gods." People gasped as Ronan raised his hammer above his head, and I started to panic. We were seriously crunched for time, now, so someone had to come up with something _fast._ "Your salvation is at hand."

As he started speaking in the native Kree tongue, Peter used my shoulder to boost him up and stand.

"Peter, no!" He smiled down at me.

"Relax, sugar. I've got this." He turned to face Ronan, and just before he slammed the hammer down, Peter started... singing? " _Ooh, child, things are gonna get easier. Ooh, child, things'll get brighter."_ It wasn't the best singing, but that really wasn't the point. The point was that Peter had somehow managed to distract Ronan by standing up and singing at him. I raised an eyebrow and looked up at the two of them in disbelief before slowly standing up. "Listen to these words. _Ooh, child, things are gonna get easier."_

"We're all doomed," I muttered, shaking my head.

"I heard that. _Ooh, child, things'll get brighter._ Now bring it down hard!" He suddenly busted out into ridiculous and eccentric dance moves, and I had to admit, I was biting my tongue to keep myself from laughing.

"What are you doing?"

"Dance-off, bro. Me and you." He kicked his leg out in Ronan's direction, and I almost lost it. He did some sort of half-spin and moved his arms in an odd way before extending them out in my direction. "Allyson."

Caught off guard, I shook my head and glared at him.

"Subtle. Take it back."

"What are you doing?" This time, Ronan shouted right at Peter.

"I'm distracting you, you big turd blossom."

Ronan whipped his head around at the sound of a gun cocking, and I allowed my laughter to escape as he noticed Drax and Rocket standing there with the Hadron re-assembled. Rocket stuck the two sparking wires together, and an orb of energy shot out and shattered Ronan's hammer, setting the Stone free. But it still couldn't hit the ground, otherwise all of Xandar would be decimated. I tried to think of a way to catch it with the sphere Gamora had given me, but before I could do anything, Peter shot out and extended his arm to catch the orb... in his bare hands.

" _Peter, no!"_ I screamed, trying to find a way to pull him back. But it was too late, and as soon as he caught it in his hands, his skin started to crack and turn purple, and a cloud of black surrounded us. I could feel my heart trying to rip itself from my chest, and it felt as though something with sharp teeth was consuming my skin, but I somehow managed to push myself up to stand.

_A group was able to share the energy amongst themselves..._

It was stupid, it as risky... but I wasn't about to give up on the idea of us surviving this.

Somehow, I managed to extend my arm out toward Peter, and screamed as loud as I could.

" _Peter! Take my hand!"_ I felt chills go down my spine as he looked at me, nearly all of his flesh consumed by the power of the stone and starting to break away. "Take my hand, Peter! Take my hand!"

As soon as his hand made contact with mine, a more intense pain than anything I'd ever felt consumed me. It was tearing me apart from the inside, and all I could do was scream to try and distract myself from how painful everything was. My flesh started to tear away as my organs constricted and stretched, so intensely that I barely felt Gamora take my hand. The only think that told me the others had grabbed on as well was their screams as the pain consumed them at first. 

Then, it slowly started to fade, and as the power of the Stone was distributed throughout the five of us, the pain became manageable, and I somehow felt... stronger. Ronan's expression changed from a smug one, to one of shock, as we gained control of ourselves and stared him down.

"You're mortal!" he shouted in disbelief. "How?"

"You said it yourself, bitch. We're the Guardians of the Galaxy."

Peter opened his palm, and purple energy shot straight toward Ronan and consumed him, lifting him into the air as his skin started to crack. Gamora reached into her pocket and pulled out her orb, and as Ronan's body exploded into nothingness, she slammed it down on the Stone to capture it. All in an instant, the pain faded away, and I was able to breathe normally. Peter looked down at me, and I could see his hand move to take mine again, when Yondu's voice turned our attention toward him and his smug smirk.

"Well, well, well. Quite the light show." He chuckled as he looked down at our motley crew. "Ain't this sweet. But you got some business to attend to before all the nookie-nookie starts." He stepped down into the crater we had created, that smirk never fading.

"Peter, you can't," I begged. "Peter."

"You gotta reconsider this, Yondu. I don't know who you're selling this to, but the only way the universe can survive is if you give it to the Nova Corps." I could see the Ravagers behind him shaking their heads.

"I may be as pretty as an angel, but I sure as hell ain't one." He brushed aside his jacket slightly to reveal that stupid arrow he could control by whistling, before extending his hand out. "Hand it over, son." 

Peter hesitated and stared at him angrily for a moment, before reaching around and handing him the Orb. I sighed and shook my head. Yondu's greediness was going to kill us all. Satisfied, he flicked out his fingers to get the other Ravagers to leave.

"Yondu." He turned around to look at us. "Do not open that Orb. You know that, right? You've seen what it does to people." He pointed at us with a smirk before walking off with the rest of his Ravagers. As soon as he was out of earshot, Peter chuckled and pulled out something silver. The... Orb...? "He is gonna be so pissed when he realizes I switched out the Orb on him."

I looked down at the Orb, then back up at him before chuckling myself, feeling relief wash over me.

"He was gonna kill you, Peter."

"Oh, I know. But he was about the only family I had." I shook my head at his ignorance and took his hand.

"No. He wasn't." 

He tilted his head at me before putting the Orb back into his pocket and pulling me into a hug, our victory finally having arrived.


	17. Chapter 17

"Why would you even know this?"

Peter and I were currently looking at a schematic of his body with the rest of Nova Corps, some odd irregularity in his body highlighted. The news it brought with it was still shocking to both of us.

"When we arrested you, we noticed an anomaly in your nervous system, so we had it checked out," Corpsman Dey informed us.

"I'm not Terran?" Peter couldn't stop staring at the map of his body, seemingly in deep disbelief.

"You are half Terran," Nova Prime corrected him. "Your mother was of Earth. Your father, well, he's something very ancient we've never seen here before. That could be why you were able to hold the Stone for as long as you did." The door opened in front of us, and Rocket,- who was still holding the twig of Groot, which was now in a pot- Drax, and Gamora walked in to join us. "Your friends have arrived. On behalf of the Nova Corps, we'd like to express our profound gratitude for your help in saving Xandar. If you will follow Denarian Dey, he has something to show you."

"Thank you, Nova Prime." The five of us followed him out of the room, and into the bright sunshine. I squinted and reeled back slightly, blinded at first by the light, until my eyes were able to adjust. "We tried to keep it as close to the original as possible. We salvaged as much as we could."

I smiled as I looked at the orange and blue ship in front of us. The Milano had essentially been saved, and I hoped that they had managed to get the Awesome Mix from the wreckage and save it.

"Wow. I... Thank you." I nudged Peter playfully. Never did I think I would hear him thanking someone from the Nova Corps.

"I have a family. They're alive because of you." I could feel a warm sensation in my chest. "Your criminal records have also been expunged. However, I have to warn you against breaking any laws in the future."

"Question. What if I see something that I want to take, and it belongs to someone else?" I rolled my eyes. Even through all of this, Rocket didn't change at all.

"You will be arrested."

"But what if I want it more than the person who has it?"

"It's still illegal. That doesn't follow."

"No, I want it more, sir. Do you understand?" Gamora and I laughed, and she led Rocket up onto the Milano to get him away from the situation. "What are you laughing at? Why? I can't have a discussion with this gentleman?"

"What if someone does something irksome and I decide to remove his spine?" I laughed again. Some people just didn't understand.

"That's... That's actually murder. It's one of the worst crimes of all. So... also illegal."

"Hmm." Drax nodded, seemingly in understanding, and made his own way up into the Milano.

"They'll be fine, Dey. I'm gonna keep an eye on them." 

"You?" Dey chuckled.

"Yeah. Me." I smiled at Peter, before shifting it into a smirk and clapping a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't you worry, Dey. I'll be there to keep an eye on him."

Peter grumbled and moved my hand from his shoulder, then draped an arm over me and ushered me onto the Milano with a wave. Everyone else had seemingly scattered to different places in the ship, and before we left, Peter pulled me around the corner and into his room. He then let go of me and rifled around through all of the drawers, until he found that wrapped box he had never opened. Refusing to remove his gaze from it, he shambled his way over to his bed and sat down, with me following in suit. He stared down at it for a few more moments, and turned to look at me with big eyes. They seemed scared and nervous, but there was a hint of excitement. I offered him a smile and nodded, and he opened up the letter.

_Peter,_

_I know these last few months have been hard on you. But I'm going to a better place. And I will be okay. And I will always be with you._

_You are the light of my life. My precious son. My little Star Lord._

_Love,_

_Mom_

He took in a deep sigh after reading the worn out letter, and I gently drifted my hand to his back to comfort him. With shaking fingers, he set the note down and opened the present, undoing the ribbon and putting it into my lap before ripping open the paper. But as soon as he took the top off the box, his sadness changed into a smile, and he took the gift in his hands. It was a small tape, labeled "Awesome Mix, Vol.2". He smirked and turned around to put the tape in as I draped the ribbon around me like a scarf.

As 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough' started to play, his face went all serious again, clearly losing himself in thought. I hated to see him like this, even if I wanted to respect him mourning his mother, so I stood up and extended my hand down to him, offering a sympathetic smile. He led his gaze up my arm until he looked me in the eyes, noticing my smile and gaining one himself. His hand took my hand and I helped him up, bopping along to the song with him to try and lift his spirits. He slowly started to follow my actions, before suddenly spinning me in a circle, causing me to laugh and lean against him.

"You go up there. Your crew is waiting for you."

"You coming with me?"

"I'll be there in a minute." He nodded and squeezed my hand before heading up to the cockpit.

I smiled and looked around his room, sighing and allowing myself to gather my thoughts. I shouldn't say anything, yet, but maybe soon... For now, I just wanted to enjoy the fact that, although my life wasn't normal, I was happy. Attempts at being normal for me just made me more and more depressed, even though it was all I thought I ever wanted. But instead, what made me happy was a family, and that's exactly what I had here.

With a final sigh, I walked out of his room and up into the cockpit, patting Drax's shoulder and smiling at Gamora before resting against Peter's chair. He smiled at me again and I brushed some of my stray hairs aside. A little, tiny yawn drew my attention over to Rocket, and my heart soared as the twig stretched to life. That extension of Groot... he was alive again.

"So, what should we do next?" Peter asked all of us. "Something good? Something bad? A bit of both?"

"We'll follow your lead, Star Lord." I could feel my heart jump at the smirk those words gave him.

"Bit of both."

Peter revved up the Milano, and we took off from Xandar, heading off to cause some more chaos, and maybe save the galaxy in the process.


End file.
